(no subject)
I sent this off to the PM email account earlier today, and will probably send it to my local MP as well.
Dear Tony Blair,
I don't know whether anyone will actually read this, but I hope they do and I hope that you accept the underlying message.
I would like to throw some real numbers at the debate:
I would love to use Public Transport to go to work.
I tried it for several months, and worked out the following:
I currently live 40 miles from my place of work.
I would prefer to live closer, but current housing costs are too great for me to do so.
My weekly season ticket costs £66.20
Weekly tube fare a further £10.00
= £76.20 per week.
I cannot get a monthly or annual season ticket because I am a service engineer - I may be called upon to travel anywhere with very little notice.
My car fuel bill for the same journey:
80 x 5 = 400 miles
10p/mile (actual, measured) = £40 per week.
This is a saving of £36.20 each week, if I travel by car.
Per annum - £1882.40 cheaper by car (fuel only)
Assume that maintenance is roughly the same as it cost me last year: £450
Road Tax: £110
Insurance: £450 (Many people pay less)
Which leaves an annual saving of £872.40 if I travel by car.
I can buy a good second-hand car for roughly £2000, and my car is currently worth ~£600, requiring £1400 to replace the vehicle.
So I can buy a replacement car every two years, and save roughly £172.40 each year
If I keep the car for three years, I save an average of £405.73 a year.
How can the train companies be so utterly useless that they require £90 million a week in subsidies, use red diesel that is barely taxed, and yet still charge their most regular and loyal customers more than it would cost them to buy, insure, maintain and run a private motor vehicle?
This is the nub of the issue - if current taxation and subsidy levels do not result in train fares that are cheaper than private road travel, then there is something very wrong with Public Transport.
Public Transport should have economies of scale - this is the basis of the premise that it's more environmentally friendly.
Therefore, even in the unlikely situation of equal taxation, regularly using a train or bus should be cheaper than running a private motor vehicle.
In the existing climate of radically different taxation, a train or bus should be significantly cheaper than running a private motor vehicle.
The fact that it is not indicates serious failings in the companies that run them.
Mr Prime Minister - I suggest that your Government address those failings first.
The current debate implies that Labour is apparently ignoring the real solution(s), and instead focusing on the idea of throwing people off the roads.
There is a solution:
Provide financially and temporally viable alternatives to private road vehicles.
Without that vital link, road pricing can NEVER achieve its objectives.
At best, it will cause job losses amongst the poor who can no longer afford to travel to work.
At worst, it will cripple British business.
Additional taxation isn't the way - find a carrot please, as your voters are sick of sticks!
Yours,
[Tomo2k]
I'll keep you all informed if I get any kind of reply.
Dear Tony Blair,
I don't know whether anyone will actually read this, but I hope they do and I hope that you accept the underlying message.
I would like to throw some real numbers at the debate:
I would love to use Public Transport to go to work.
I tried it for several months, and worked out the following:
I currently live 40 miles from my place of work.
I would prefer to live closer, but current housing costs are too great for me to do so.
My weekly season ticket costs £66.20
Weekly tube fare a further £10.00
= £76.20 per week.
I cannot get a monthly or annual season ticket because I am a service engineer - I may be called upon to travel anywhere with very little notice.
My car fuel bill for the same journey:
80 x 5 = 400 miles
10p/mile (actual, measured) = £40 per week.
This is a saving of £36.20 each week, if I travel by car.
Per annum - £1882.40 cheaper by car (fuel only)
Assume that maintenance is roughly the same as it cost me last year: £450
Road Tax: £110
Insurance: £450 (Many people pay less)
Which leaves an annual saving of £872.40 if I travel by car.
I can buy a good second-hand car for roughly £2000, and my car is currently worth ~£600, requiring £1400 to replace the vehicle.
So I can buy a replacement car every two years, and save roughly £172.40 each year
If I keep the car for three years, I save an average of £405.73 a year.
How can the train companies be so utterly useless that they require £90 million a week in subsidies, use red diesel that is barely taxed, and yet still charge their most regular and loyal customers more than it would cost them to buy, insure, maintain and run a private motor vehicle?
This is the nub of the issue - if current taxation and subsidy levels do not result in train fares that are cheaper than private road travel, then there is something very wrong with Public Transport.
Public Transport should have economies of scale - this is the basis of the premise that it's more environmentally friendly.
Therefore, even in the unlikely situation of equal taxation, regularly using a train or bus should be cheaper than running a private motor vehicle.
In the existing climate of radically different taxation, a train or bus should be significantly cheaper than running a private motor vehicle.
The fact that it is not indicates serious failings in the companies that run them.
Mr Prime Minister - I suggest that your Government address those failings first.
The current debate implies that Labour is apparently ignoring the real solution(s), and instead focusing on the idea of throwing people off the roads.
There is a solution:
Provide financially and temporally viable alternatives to private road vehicles.
Without that vital link, road pricing can NEVER achieve its objectives.
At best, it will cause job losses amongst the poor who can no longer afford to travel to work.
At worst, it will cripple British business.
Additional taxation isn't the way - find a carrot please, as your voters are sick of sticks!
Yours,
[Tomo2k]
I'll keep you all informed if I get any kind of reply.