Reading Roars!

Thames Valley Economic Partnership (TVEP) has suggested the following to reduce M4 congestion (”Businesses demand 21st century transport“):

• A motorway monorail linking Reading with Heathrow
• New toll lanes between the M4’s J4 and J13; and
• Underground busways on special tracks

TVEP’s Shaun Whitaker explains:

Our vision is for an integrated transport system that enables efficient travel by rail, bus or car across the Thames Valley and between the main towns in the region.  This will only be achieved quickly and effectively with close coordination between the public and private sector, and with the support of the Government to address these schemes of national importance.

Creative thinking is a must.  I stressed the new for big ideas in a previous post (”Awful traffic: Reading residents give their views“), even mentioning two new monorail systems deployed in South-East Asia. 

Of course, while it’s good to talk (and we do a lot of that), actually acting on these creative ideas would be even better and I strongly doubt that an integrated transport system can be achieved “quickly and effectively” in the UK. 

Consider Heathrow’s lengthy Terminal 5 project (the building’s architect was selected way back in 1989 and planning permission was granted 8 years after the first planning application).  In a Guardian article published today about the terminal’s disastrous first couple of days (”‘We can’t give you information. We haven’t got a Tannoy’“), passenger Anthony Horowitz forlornly comments that T5’s handling:

so obviously repeats the pattern of the Millennium Dome, Wembley stadium and the Scottish parliament which, you may remember, arrived three years late and 10-times over budget

Integrating transport in the South-East is a big job - a much bigger challenge, arguably, than erecting a large white tent in East London and constructing a stadium with a big arch.  However, fixing our transport woes is a job that we simply cannot ignore.  As TVEP’s Whitaker darkly says:

We are supposed to be the fifth or sixth wealthiest country with the highest GDP and yet we don’t supply a 21st century transport system.