What's Wrong With

What's Wrong With

O N N D G R O O L U P N E W S E R No 28 SEPTEMBER 2016 L E T T Our Newsletter is sent out to our London members and other contacts. The group exists to campaign for sustainable transport solutions in London and to support the work of the Campaign nationally. If you have not already done so we would be pleased if you would also join our group and take part in our London What’s based activities. To contact the group write to Chris Barker, wrong Campaign for Better Transport, 46 Redston Road, London N8 7HJ. with HS2 - E-mail: chrisjbark- [email protected]: the CBT phone 020 8347 7684. Regular meetings of EUSTON the group are held in view STATION central London. The Newsletter is edited by Chris Barker. Contribu- New high speed rail lines can to Scotland and Wales are rope with regular commuters connection at Old Oak Com- tors are welcomed. be a means of providing extra unclear making it difficult to hit the hardest by annual mon must be given serious Opinions expressed capacity and freeing up space on see how HS2 will compete season ticket hikes. Passen- consideration urgently. are those of the au- thors and not neces- existing lines for increased with short-distance aviation. gers travelling on the existing Ongoing investment in There has been insufficient HS1 line pay a premium and if public transport is vital to the sarily those of the freight and local passenger Campaign for Better services. work on the options for using this formula is applied to HS2, success of our country so the the capacity on the existing many people could be ex- very substantial government Transport. Previous issues of However, there are currently lines released by HS2, and the cluded from using HS2 ser- and industry support already some major problems with the newsletter can potential benefits that this vices and it will become a committed to the rail network be found at the plans for the HS2 project capacity could bring by ena- railway for the rich. should be celebrated. New as they stand, not least for the http://bettertransport- bling lower carbon develop- But in London, there are lines can, if developed properly, london.org.uk. London end of it. First things ment based around the current particular problems. The be vital in helping increase first: the project proposals do rail network. Also crucially, plans for connections at Old capacity where it’s needed not form part of a coherent too many of the proposed Oak Common and Euston and enabling significant fur- national transport strategy. HS2 stations are in out of could not unreasonably be ther shift from private car use, At the same time as prom- town locations with only described as a mess. It is as- road freight and aviation to oting HS2 the Government is vague plans for connections tonishing that the plans can rail and connected sustaina- also embarking upon a major to other public transport. have got so far without some ble transport. That’s why programme of road building on HS2 could, if linked to other major operational issues we’re currently working to try the strategic road network, transport and planning policies, having been resolved. Even to get Parliament to amend promoting car-based develop- help spread economic activity the new Mayor has called on the High Speed Rail Bill, ment and reducing funds around the country, but pursued the Euston HS2 development which confers the powers to available for local authorities to in isolation, it could simply to be halted till a solution can construct the scheme and support important bus services. reinforce the imbalance be- be found. The construction of sets out the plans. We hope It is still unclear how HS2 tween London and the South the HS2 terminus there would that the Government will en- will connect with the rest of East and the rest of the UK. cause interminable disruption sure that HS2 will achieve the transport network and how Neither has the Government without apparently creating these aims long before any it will benefit areas of the yet set out its policy on HS2 a satisfactory connection to construction begins. country not directly connected fares. We already have some HS1 and other transport. Al- James MacColl to it. In particular, future links of the highest rail fares in Eu- ternatives for improving the CBT Head of Campaigns WE HAVE A NEW WEBSITE AT: BETTERTRANSPORTLONDON.ORG.UK, AND A TWITTER ACCOUNT: @CBTransportLDN rural areas, many suburban areas education and health services. and towns where buses disappear Safer London streets that are fit in the evenings and on Sundays. for humans require a significant re- The wages Those without a car, the majority, duction in traffic says ‘Human are excluded from access to further Streets - The Mayors Vision for Cy- education, employment, access to cling three years on’. In Oslo, car- public and other services and free plans aim for ‘as little as possi- many aspects of public and social ble’ motorised traffic, including of pollution activity. They are in fact discrimi- electric cars, ‘they just take up too nated against. Those most affected much space’. come within the scope of the Of course minimising motorised The new Mayor of London Sadiq Equality Act and of much human traffic in London won’t make mon- Khan, who suffers from adult onset rights law. ey for the automobile industry but asthma, says he is determined to There should be a right to public then again you never see broccoli cut air pollution. He has an- transport. It is as important to the being advertised on TV! nounced the introduction of a Tox- majority of the population and to Rosalind Readhead and icity Charge which will charge a normal modern life as access to Margherita Rendel pre-Euro4 diesel vehicles (mostly registered before 2005) an addi- tional £10 to enter the Congestion zone by 2017. He is also bringing It has been nearly a year since forward and possibly expanding Volkswagen admitted they had the ULEZ to Greater London. Mean- intentionally programmed 11 while he is lobbying the Govern- ment for a new Clean Air Act which million cars to cheat emissions will control pollution from traffic. testing. Experts say diesel will have to be VW had invested heavily in flawed banned from the streets of London diesel technology and wanted to to realistically bring air quality to max out its investment. Cheating WHO safe limits. allowed them to market fraudulent Electric vehicles are often re- ‘clean diesel’ passenger cars as the ferred to as ‘zero-emission vehi- way forward. Tax incentives and cles’ . However in 2010 a Renault encouragement by Government to advert claiming its Electric vehicles go ‘green’ contributed to London were ‘zero-emission’ was banned licenced diesel vehicles reaching a by the Advertising Standards Au- record 774,513 in 2015. Diesel fuel thority. It was pointed out that a is responsible for 40% of air vehicle charged using energy pollution in London. sourced from the UK national grid Cars are even now responsible would be majority coal and gas for more than half, 53 per cent, of powered as renewables only make all transport generated green- up a very small proportion of the Pedestrianising Oxford house gas emissions including par- Electric Grid, so just polluting ticulates and the production of en- somewhere else. There is also ad- ergy (oil refineries and power ditional non-tailpipe air pollution Street by 2020 stations) for transport (DECC stats). caused by brake and tyre wear and In comparison, public transport Following Sadiq Khan’s manifesto commitment that he would ‘work production. As Jenny Bates of with Westminster council, local businesses, Transport for London and produces only 6.7 per cent. Any in- Friends of the Earth has comment- taxis, to pedestrianise Oxford Street, Deputy Mayor Val Shawcross has crease in the production of green- ed, ‘There is no such thing as a lost no time in announcing that Oxford Street will be pedestrianised by house gases from cars increases clean car’. 2020. Joe Irvin, CEO of Living Streets, which has been in the forefront of the existing damage occurring A University of Leeds report fore- the campaign said: ‘This is a brilliant start to transforming London into from climate change such as casts that driverless cars will lead a world-leading walking city, improving the health of those living and floods and droughts throughout to a substantial mode shift from working in it.’ the world leading to the destruc- public transport to cars. As the re- At a recent meeting of the GLA Transport Committee there was general tion of livelihoods and migration. port acknowledges, this would agreement that the present environment in Oxford Street is unaccept- There are 1.1 million people in lead to an increase in the use of able citing congestion, safety and air quality. However many objections London who suffer from respiratory energy despite improvements in were raised to full pedestrianisation. Alex Williams, TfL’s planning conditions and are vulnerable to the design of vehicles. Apart from director, referred to the difficulties for finding terminating space for unhealthy air pollution levels, ac- the creation of more pollution and buses at each end of the street and suggested that there was a need to cording to the British Lung Founda- health problems there is also a look at the entire bus network in central London. He suggested that tion. High spikes in air pollution consequence for people who don’t Crossrail would make a reduction in bus numbers possible.

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