Lack of vision
The plan
To build a tram in the city of Edinburgh linking the city center with the airport
The Problem
- The Scottish Nation Party
- Lack of vision
- Politicians
- Combination of the above
The problem is a very British one. Despite the successes and expansions of existing networks in the UK and all over Europe, local politicians fail to see the benefits citing the building of such schemes as "a waste of money" or of no benefit whatsoever. Of course this argument would be acceptable if cities all over Europe, and the rest of the World, were going the same way as the UK by depending on ever clogged roads and air routes, not to mention ever increasing pollution.
The French City of Bordeaux has had problems deciding where the tram system should go because of competition between the areas of the city to actually have the system go through that part of the city. The benefits are being felt not just by the drop in the number of cars on the roads but also the ease of getting around - around 110,000 passenger journeys daily, just consider the reduction in car use even the number of buses removed from the roads. So how does the Scottish administration envisage a reduction in the number of car/bus/taxi journeys made, by introducing a London style congestion charge? How popular will that be considering there is no viable alternative to get in/out/around the city.
The one hope is that the Green Party taking over the Transport Executive will actually push the scheme onwards, the Green favour the tram system, but not all of it, namely the airport link in its current form. We will see.
3 Responses to 'Lack of vision'
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The problem isn’t local politicians (most of them are in favour of the trams), the problem is more about the SNP and a vocal minority of car drivers who don’t want their right to drive impeded in any way!
Check out http://www.tramfacts.wordpress.com
Yes, I accept that this is a problem more with SNP, so maybe my summation should have been less general (pointing the finger at all politicians).
Having read the blog linked above it would be good to have all those vocal minority of drivers come to somewhere with trams like Prague, most of Germany, Holland, etc. In fact I haven’t had the need for a car for the past 5 years because of trams and a good metro system. I’ve added the TramFacts blog to the links section. Worth a read.
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