A TRANSPORT CRISIS IS INEVITABLE!

As the Government’s Public Transport Policy falls apart, due to lack of a serious financial commitment, rail fares are rising dramatically. Add 12 million extra cars on the roads over the next 30 years - mix this with a planning system that stagnates and frustrates major decisions allowing years of delays and enquiries and you have the ingredients for a massive transport crisis.
According to a new study by Imperial College, London, commissioned by the RAC Foundation, Britain needs a new network of motorways and A roads to cope with 12 million extra cars over the next 30 years.
It warns that, without significant investment in the new routes, most of the motorway network will degenerate to heavily congested conditions currently seen on the western section of the M25.
The study, entitled Roads and Reality, also recommends the introduction of road pricing on motorways and A roads, an idea the government has been reluctant to pursue since 1.8 million people signed a petition against it this year.
The Imperial College report includes a map showing roughly where the new roads should be built, or existing roads upgraded, including one from Southampton to Plymouth, slicing through the Hampshire and Dorset countryside, and turning the A31 from Cadnam through Ringwood to Ashley Heath into a motorway.
As there is no current hope of a deliverable transport strategy for the South West, or the money, or a planning system that could make it happen in any realistic time scale - expect things to get much, much worse before there is any hope of improvement.
The combined financial and environmental consequences of the kind of daily road stagnation predicted in this Imperial College report will be considerable, let alone the cost and disruption to recover from such a position - quite probably enough to cover the costs of improvements to the roads, railways, and the environmental improvements to reduce the impact of the new roads.
Does it really take a crisis to motivate politicians to action? I am afraid the history books are littered with examples confirming that it does!
Chris Slocock
Immediate Past President
Dorset Business

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