Norman Baker MP Member of Parliament for Lewes constituency
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Contact Norman at:
Norman Baker,
23 East Street,
Lewes,
East Sussex,
BN7 2LJ.
Tel: (01273) 480281.
Fax: (01273) 480287.
Email: info
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Public transport
We have successive governments that seem to regard money spent on roads as investment and money spent on rail as subsidy. Up to £25m can be found for a dual carriageway Polegate bypass, but not a penny for even a single track reinstated Lewes-Uckfield railway line.
We have policies at national and local level committed to the concept of integrated transport, yet train companies try to keep bikes off trains, buses and trains are rarely timetabled together, and stations like Newhaven Town have had their car parks taken away.
We have pledges at both national and local level to reduce car dependency, yet early morning, late night and Sunday buses are virtually eliminated while new roads continue to be built. And while the cost of travelling by car has remained almost static in real terms over the last 25 years, the cost of travelling by train has risen by over 60% and bus by over 70%.
What is to be done? First let's put some real money into railways, as other European countries have done so successfully. We need a national programme of line improvements, and line and station reopenings. We also need significantly cheaper fares. Travelling by train in the UK is more expensive than almost anywhere else in the world. Last year, I travelled half way up Portugal by train for about £4.50.
Locally, we need the reinstatement of the Lewes-Uckfield and Eridge to Tunbridge Wells lines to provide a new through route from Seaford and Newhaven to London. Next, we need electrification of the Hastings-Ashford line, and the introduction of the Willingdon chord to allow trains to bypass Eastbourne. It is absurd that it presently takes longer by train from Lewes to Ashford, than from Ashford to Brussels. We also need new rolling stock.
In our towns, we need to do more to encourage the use of buses, bicycles and what my mother would call shank's pony. In Lewes, we need to see the introduction of car parking charges at County Hall and elsewhere in the public sector, with money raised used to cut bus and train fares for employees. We also need a residents' parking scheme, at least in the centre.
And on our roads we need to do what we can to persuade people out of their cars and onto public transport, without penalising those who have no alternative. That could for example mean road tolls on some of our motorways where a rail or air alternative exists. Someone driving from London to Edinburgh has a choice to use public transport. Another driving at night from East Chiltington to Lewes does not.
I believe that the great problem is actually the electoral cycle. Tackling transport seriously means big money spent up front, but with nothing much to show for it when the election comes round four or five years later. The dividends probably take ten years to come through and no politician wants to wait that long.
Yet we must find a way out of our present mess. If we don't, we all face more congestion, more pollution, more misery.