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Tory transport policy to make rail a priority
Christopher Adams, Financial Times
The Conservatives are to put investment in the railways at the heart of their transport policy in an effort to ease overcrowding and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
David Cameron, Tory leader, and Chris Grayling, shadow transport secretary, will say today that Gordon Brown, chancellor, has failed to meet his transport spending commitments and urge the government to use money raised by the sale of rail franchises to ease rush-hour crowding.
…As part of efforts to shed its image of closeness to the motoring lobby, the party wants the government to commit immediately to key rail expansion projects, including the Thameslink cross-London service and Birmingham New Street and is promising cross-party support for these. Mr Cameron will promise that, if elected, the Tories would “complete these improvements and look at ways of further enhancing our rail network”.
“We must put rail at the heart of Britain’s transport system. If we are to meet our international obligations on climate change . . . we need a major increase in rail use. Trains are the most environmentally effective way of getting around,” he said.
(16 April 2007)
There and Back Again: The soul of the commuter
Nick Paumgarten, New Yorker
People may endure miserable commutes out of an inability to weigh their general well-being against quantifiable material gains.
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Last year, Midas, the muffler company, in honor of its fiftieth anniversary, gave an award for America’s longest commute to an engineer at Cisco Systems, in California, who travels three hundred and seventy-two miles-seven hours-a day, from the Sierra foothills to San Jose and back. “It’s actually exhilarating,” the man said of his morning drive. “When I get in, I’m pumped up, ready to go.”
People like to compare commutes, to complain or boast about their own and, depending on whether their pride derives from misery or efficiency, to exaggerate the length or the brevity of their trip. People who feel they have smooth, manageable commutes tend to evangelize. Those who hate the commute think of it as a core affliction, like a chronic illness. Once you raise the subject, the testimonies pour out, and, if your ears are tuned to it, you begin overhearing commute talk everywhere: mode of transport, time spent on train/interstate/treadmill/homework help, crossword-puzzle aptitude-limitless variations on a stock tale.
People who are normally circumspect may, when describing their commutes, be unexpectedly candid in divulging the intimate details of their lives. They have it all worked out, down to the number of minutes it takes them to shave or get stuck at a particular light. But commuting is like sex or sleep: everyone lies. It is said that doctors, when they ask you how much you drink, will take the answer and double it. When a commuter says, “It’s an hour, door-to-door,” tack on twenty minutes.
Seven hours is extraordinary, but four hours, increasingly, is not. Roughly one out of every six American workers commutes more than forty-five minutes, each way. People travel between counties the way they used to travel between neighborhoods. The number of commuters who travel ninety minutes or more each way-known to the Census Bureau as “extreme commuters”-has reached 3.5 million, almost double the number in 1990. They’re the fastest-growing category, the vanguard in a land of stagnant wages, low interest rates, and ever-radiating sprawl. They’re the talk-radio listeners, billboard glimpsers, gas guzzlers, and swing voters, and they don’t-can’t-watch the evening news.
(16 April 2007)
GM puts brakes on new rear-wheel drive vehicles
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. is holding off on plans for virtually all new rear-wheel drive cars in response to the threat of far stricter fuel economy standards from the federal government.
Concerned that heightened mileage requirements will penalize the automaker for producing new versions of high-performance rear-wheelers, GM is halting all but a few of the vehicles in its future lineup.
Word of GM’s change in plans came this week from GM product czar Bob Lutz in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. A GM spokesman confirmed the information on Wednesday. ..
(12 Apr 2007)
