Encourage public transport use by making it good

We do not need lectures on the virtues of public transport - we need a public transport system worthy of the name

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The sheer state of public transport is the biggest obstacle to mass public transport use

We are often treated to pious lectures by politicians of all political stripes about the virtues of using public transport. It is better for the environment, we are told. It helps to reduce the amount of fume-belching traffic on the roads, we are told. All of this is true, of course, so it is galling that the state of public transport, and especially the rail system, is such that few people use it unless they absolutely have to.

By Barrie Hudson

Here is a compelling little mental exercise for car users.

Imagine that for every instance in which you currently use your car, there was a genuine public transport alternative.

Imagine, for example, that if you had to travel to a fairly distant city for work, you could make the journey aboard a clean, well-ventilated and punctual train. Imagine that once you got aboard that train, you were guaranteed a comfortable seat and knew that under no circumstances would you be obliged to stand during your journey, or that you would be jostled in your seat by unfortunates obliged to stand during theirs.

Imagine not only that you could use the train service to get to your city or town of work and back, but that the service was part of a network so extensive that you could also visit your extended family and perhaps even go on holiday without ever handling an ignition key.

Imagine that in order to enjoy this superb form of travel, you were obliged to pay only a derisory fraction of what you would burn in fossil fuel if you took your car.

Imagine that if you lived some distance from the station, perhaps on an out-of-the-way road, you could rest assured of a regular and conveniently frequent bus service to get you to and from the station at the beginning and end of the day - even if you were one only a relative handful of people who used the service at the times in question.

Imagine there was never any risk of that bus service having to be slimmed down or cancelled because those in charge of the service simply didn’t have the resources to keep it going, and had to cut back on less lucrative routes in favour of ones which paid for their own upkeep.

Imagine that all of the above were true, every day of every week of every month of every year.