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Commuters ditch buses for cars
Jun 24 2003
By Ben Hurst, Evening Mail
Disgruntled commuters are deserting public transport to get back in their cars with disastrous results for the region's clogged roads.
Latest figures show two million drivers who previously used buses and trams in the West Midlands decided to get back behind the wheel last year.
It is the third year in a row that a big drop in public transport use has been recorded and puts a question mark over schemes such as the Midland Metro extension and bus Showcase expansion.
The failing transport policy is revealed in the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority's best value plan 2003/4 which shows both bus and Midland Metro numbers in decline. The only area showing increased use is the region's rail network.
Transport bosses are still aiming to increase the total number of passenger journeys in the West Midlands to 415 million by 2006 in a bid to ease congestion in gridlocked Birmingham and on the region's motorway network, already the busiest in Europe.
Last year the figure was 363.3 million, the previous year it was 365.6 million and in 1999/2000 the number of passenger journeys was a much more healthy 382 million.
Russell Eden, Midlands spokesman for the Association of British Drivers said: "Whoever decided to spend the £100 million on the first Metro line should be locked up."
Simon Woodings from the AA said: "People are voting with their feet and choosing a car and possibly a traffic jam over something which may be running late. They might have to make two or three changes on public transport to get to their destination and that might not even be safe. Today Centro director general Rob Donald admitted the targets were over-optimistic.
He said: "When the targets were set we could not have known that numbers would drop so much, and we will need to look at that target again."
Mr Donald said the Metro system figures were not irretrievable.
