Reading Roars!

Feeling the squeeze?  You’re not alone.  We are now Europe’s most crowded country (and third worldwide in population density, after Bangladesh and South Korea).

Of course, if you are a user of public transport, you may have suspected this already.  The economy may be faltering, but the passenger numbers certainly aren’t.  If anything, the already heaving First Great Western trains and Tube seem to be getting busier and busier. 

It’s apparent to me that smarter transport solutions for the Thames Valley must be found (since our population is predicted to continue growing and even eclipse all other countries in Europe). 

As Martin Salter MP said at a Thames Valley transport workshop on 17 September (I’m grabbing this from the TVEP website): 

The infrastructure is absolutely antiquated. We should be talking of six tracking the Great Westerm main line, we should be talking of electrification, certainly to Reading, and probably to Bristol. For business men, if infrastructure inhibits the growth of your business, you are not going to hang around in the Thames Valley…….it is an indictment of governments that 86 per cent of all delays on the road network are due to capacity issues, but that is because we have not planned.. .parish pump politicians in West Berkshire blocked an absolutely crucial park and ride scheme in Reading because a cabbage field on the edge of the M4  was designated an area of outstanding natural beauty. The people who object to M4 widening, to more rail tracks and to park and ride schemes would be the very first to complain if their jobs were not here and they  did not have the ability to sustain the very prosperous lifestyle we have here.

That’s fine, but there is another solution that  I think we ought to consider, however, and that is to encourage flexible working.  It’s barmy that many of us are expected to begin and finish work at the same time in the 21st century.  Technology allows us to do all sorts of wonderful things without the need to travel very far.  It’s worth a thought.