Steve WoodsThe embarrassingly dire state of (public) transport in #Bristol cf. Europe.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/how-bristols-transport-falling-behind-10850025
Alexa Devreux-SwiftI used to live a similar distance from Bristol city centre as I now do from Munich city centre.
Typical public transport journey to Bristol, over one hour.
Typical S-Bahn journey to Munich, 40 minutes.
And this is GERMANY, which has had pitiful investment into infrastructure for decades.
@alexadeswift I lived in Saarbrücken in the mid-1970s.
Even then, it made the UK look backward in terms of public transport.
I grew up on the buses in the 70s and 80s, due to my dad being a bus driver. The worst thing ever to happen to them was deregulation and privatisation.
The UK needs to reverse that, and surely look into a flat fare monthly ticket for travel on the entire public transport network, and even free public transport in the bigger metropolitan regions!?
Luxembourg has entirely free public transport across the entire country for goodness sake!
Nature Punk@alexadeswift @wood5y can you imagine how well put together our system would be if the government had retained control of public transport?
With the economic growth in the 80s and 90s (recessions notwithstanding) and a fully consolidated transport plan, and knowing what we now know about public transport contributing to increased economic performance, it would have been quite something.
Just look to London, and how modernising the Tube and DLR, along with making sure trains are always clean and well maintained, has led to a vast increase in passengers and which has now been applied to the overground.
And that simply makes sense. I mean I remember when the 1983 Stock was replaced with the 1996 Stock on the Jubilee, and honestly, 30 years later they still look good, which is NOT how the tube looked in the 80s and early 90s!
Feòrag@alexadeswift @wood5y @afewbugs There would be issues with it being a devolved matter. How do we get England on board with such ideas?
@feorag @alexadeswift @afewbugs Somehow I can't see that part of the British state running Englandshire ditching its stingy attitude and reducing the qualifying age for bus passes to 60 (as per Cymru and Scotland).
🦩 Plastic Garden Fauna 🦩@alexadeswift @afewbugs @wood5y
The UK's ultra wealthy (like the rest of Europe) take their stolen wealth to Luxembourg's banking sector. It's then hidden where British taxation can't touch it. This capital flight is the reason Luxembourg's public services are well financed and the same reason why the UK's are not.
Luxenbourg's only purpose for existence is to render the tax laws of the rest of Europe meaningless. Its a landlocked postage stamp with nothing else to offer, so comparisons should be made with that in mind. It's a tapeworm on the body of Europe. Complimenting Luxembourg on their abundant public services isn't the flex it might seem to be.