Recent content by ruthtom010

You should relate capital spending to use (journeys or passenger km). On that basis, past spending on roads looks reasonable. Future spending on rail (mainly Metro) looks very generous.

I think it is an open question whether “no change” equates to a poor passenger experience as it reduces delays at stops.

Not sure I get your logic here. It is about proportions, not absolute amounts. So if the % subsidy for road use is (say) 0-20%, depending on whether you treat congestion as subsidy to road users (I think this range is broadly in line with the SD report you quoted), and the % subsidy for rail...

I believe (can be checked from EU stats) that rail subsidy per journey in UK is less than in most other countries. In other words, farepayers in UK pay a higher share of total costs. You may be right though that those total costs are higher in UK....presumably someone has looked into this...

IIRC (haven't checked) the SD externalities include congestion costs imposed on other road users of around 10 billion - they are a true cost, but not really a subsidy in the sense of a transfer from non-road users. If you knock that off, motoring about pays its full costs. But even if you...

That's why I quoted approx traffic figures for roads funded by Highways England - the same coverage as their budget.

Not quite. Network Rail covers a lot more than trunk surface transport (lots of commuting). And the 10% or so of surface travel accounted for by rail includes London Underground and Light Rail. Network Rail 's budget is around 3 times that of Highways England. Highways England fund Motorways...

DfT spends over half its budget on rail. Rail accounts for around 10% of surface travel.

Well, if so, the review is surprisingly sceptical about transport in all forms.....and not sure the money going into HS2 suggests DfT have a strong anti-rail position.

Well, the M4 relief road is another scheme where there was a poll: https://mobile.twitter.com/CBICymru/status/989796060020305920

Actually, the evaluation evidence is a bit stronger for roads than for rail: http://www.whatworksgrowth.org/policy-reviews/transport/

The numbers just don't add up. You could double rail use in Wales and it would amount to knocking a few years off traffic growth. And in fact many of the passengers would be transfers from bus or new journeys.

Under a fifth of jobs in South East Wales are located in the centre of Cardiff......

Just responding to the aside on the allegedly unnecessary M4 relief road. Very roughly, along the busiest stretches of the M4 (and indeed A55), if you take the link between any two junctions, about as many people are traveling each day as use the entire rail network in Wales.

On modal shift, there is just a complete lack of proportionality. For every 100 people in south east Wales who work away from home and travel other than on foot, around 4-5 travel by bus, 2-3 by rail and the rest by car or van. Doubling rail use would soak up only a few years of road traffic...