Hetlana
Member
- Joined
- 19 Dec 2014
- Messages
- 50
Imagine an elevator in an apartment block, like the one in my own appartment block, here in Nanjing, China. Now, if you were to study the journeys made by each person using that elevator, you will pretty soon notice that nearly all the journeys either begin or end on the ground floor. Certainly, the vast majority of my elevator journeys do just that, and for obvious reasons.
And because of that, a typical elevator travelling to the top of the building will start off more crowded and become progressively more empty as its more of its customers leave the elevator to enter their respective floors and then their own apartments.
Now it may seem obvious and pointless to make all that point but I think that it's worth using it as a metaphor for railway and other public transport usage. Certain transport you would expect to be used like an elevator - a school bus for example where every child's journey either begins or ends at one end of the journey - the school, or a commuter rail line where every passenger gets off at the same city centre terminus to go to work in the morning but in the evening gets off at the many different suburban and dormitory town stops at the other end of the line.
But the elevator metaphor should, ideally, not apply to whole countries, and particularly those above, say, 40,000 KM2, as that would suggest that the entire economy is centred around just one centre, with the rest of the country being its commuter belt. A good economy, in my opinion, is one that is pluricentric like Germany's, with no single metropolis sucking in the wealth from the rest of the country and turning it into its commuter belt or hinterland.
So will HS2 be an elevator railway with nearly all journeys involving London, with that city turning the English Midlands and North into its own commuter hinterland, or will you have Mancunians travelling to Birmingham, and Yorkshiremen travelling to Nottingham, and with all cities along the line being centres in their own right?
And because of that, a typical elevator travelling to the top of the building will start off more crowded and become progressively more empty as its more of its customers leave the elevator to enter their respective floors and then their own apartments.
Now it may seem obvious and pointless to make all that point but I think that it's worth using it as a metaphor for railway and other public transport usage. Certain transport you would expect to be used like an elevator - a school bus for example where every child's journey either begins or ends at one end of the journey - the school, or a commuter rail line where every passenger gets off at the same city centre terminus to go to work in the morning but in the evening gets off at the many different suburban and dormitory town stops at the other end of the line.
But the elevator metaphor should, ideally, not apply to whole countries, and particularly those above, say, 40,000 KM2, as that would suggest that the entire economy is centred around just one centre, with the rest of the country being its commuter belt. A good economy, in my opinion, is one that is pluricentric like Germany's, with no single metropolis sucking in the wealth from the rest of the country and turning it into its commuter belt or hinterland.
So will HS2 be an elevator railway with nearly all journeys involving London, with that city turning the English Midlands and North into its own commuter hinterland, or will you have Mancunians travelling to Birmingham, and Yorkshiremen travelling to Nottingham, and with all cities along the line being centres in their own right?
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