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Transport Group News
Maintenance
Whenever people suggest methods of curing
our transport problems, they almost invariably suggest there
should be greater INVESTMENT in transport. They may be talking
about new roads, new railways, more buses, more trains or even
new cycle tracks. However, all of them need maintaining if they
are to be of any long-term use yet few people talk about MAINTENANCE
with the result that maintenance budgets are often barely adequate
to maintain existing roads, existing railways, existing buses,
existing trains and existing cycle tracks.
For many years, transport expenditure has
been concentrated on expanding the transport system at the expense
of maintenance. We have seen the Jubilee Line Extension added
to the Underground network while the remainder of the network
has been allowed to decay. We have seen many motorways built
while potholes have been allowed to develop in local roads.
Privatisation of the railways has resulted
in most train operating companies committing themselves to buying
new trains which are just starting to come into service. There
has also been an increase in broken rails on the railways since
privatisation. The accident at Hatfield in October, which was
caused by a broken rail, indicated that reducing maintenance
expenditure might have gone too far. It had been noted some months
before that the rail in question did need replacing but nothing
had been done about it. The normal procedure on railways when
it is known that track is not up to standard, but is otherwise
considered safe, is to restrict the speed of trains over it.
If a speed restriction had been in place, it is likely that the
accident would have been less serious.
Once it was realised that there were sections
of railway track all over the country which appeared to be in
a similar state to that at Hatfield, speed restrictions were
imposed on these sections of track. On some sections of track,
the speed restrictions were lifted fairly quickly once more detailed
checks had shown the track was up to standard but on others,
it has taken months because the only satisfactory solution was
renewal of the rails. The speed restrictions have been so numerous
and so severe on many lines that the timetable became unworkable.
Consequently, while many travellers have deserted the railways
in recent months, those who continued to use the railways have
had to endure much longer "door-to-door" journey times.
Some of the travellers who deserted the railways just stayed
at home but others have travelled by bus, by coach, by air, by
car, by taxi and by motorcycle. Some will have found the alternatives
quicker or cheaper, or even both and will never return to train
travel. There have been a few people who have moved house so
as to reduce the time they take to travel to work. In some areas,
diversion of travel from railways to the motor car has caused
a noticeable increase in traffic congestion. In practice, most
train travellers who have travelled by other means will have
caused energy consumption for transport to increase and have
used modes of transport where the risk of accident is greater
than when travelling by rail.
Few people will have contemplated that the
skimping of railway track maintenance was likely to increase
the cost of the health service. Most people do acknowledge that
many railway travellers do have a private car alternative but
few seem to appreciate how high a proportion of people travelling
to or through Croydon choose to use public transport. If the
council wishes to increase the number of people coming into Croydon
substantially, it needs to ensure that they choose to use public
transport if the road network is to avoid regularly becoming
gridlocked.
Chloride
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