Off Topic And Now for Something Completely Different

Or even better keep bus lanes and put the companies into public ownership, with the same subsidies.
Ditto for trains (apart from the bus lanes bit!)

 

All the dual carriageways heading into Hull could have trams running running down the middle. Until they arrive at the Victorian/Edwardian stage of development.

 

There were many mistakes made with the bus lanes, but for me one of the biggest ones was that there does not appear to have been any corresponding improvement in bus numbers ,frequency or reliability of the time table, to make public transport a more viable option.

You can chuck in the mess they've made with information in the station too. Unless they're going to the final destination, infrequent users would find it difficult to know what bus to catch, so I have no idea how they expect visitors to the City to work it out, especially as they seem to change the route numbers on a whim.

 

No-one who mattered factored in the population growth and increase in car usage.

Nottingham, Sheffield, London, Croydon and Manchester reintroduced tram/light rail usage(?) that run through the night, but I'm guessing Hull isn't big enough to justify the investment.

 

Major crime can't crack itself and deserves a full police response.


The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

Agreed
I regularly get the bus, but still have to check every single time I do to see what times they've decided to run them today (literally did this morning for today actually)
And they have cut my buses anyway.
Not saying this wouldn't happen in public ownership, but if it was run well, and subject to serious scrutiny, at least you'd know it was being done for reasons other than lining someone's pockets.

 

Bus Lanes..... has anyone tried driving in Leeds lately... its genuinely easier driving in London, Manchester... Stevie Wonder is Head of Causing as much havoc as is humanly possible.

 

They are not as extensive as the old tram systems were. The third largest city, Leeds, hasn’t. Their system covered every area of Leeds and you could change and travel all the way to Bradford. Would not be affordable to have the same now.
I was in .Leeds seeing my grandparents and my grandad took me down to see the last tram , crowds were huge. I remember him saying to my mother that it was a damn fool idea and one they would regret.

It isn’t so much population growth but the proportion of the population who can now afford to run a car despite all the financial woes we hear so much about.

 

I swear she was in a car next to me when I accidentally cut someone up.... now I know she wasn't annoyed at all, just in full rehearsal.

 

They are currently putting a new bike Lane system up a hill in Sheffield. Guess who’s coming to dinner to work the job? The same team that did Freetown Way. I’ve tried to tell the locals….

 

Your Gramps was right - Germany has kept tram lines and their system of combined rail/tram travel is brilliant (certainly to an English traveller like myself); the last time we were in the Black Forest we took a day off the bikes and caught the train into Karlsruhe, it was cheap, on time and spotlessly clean; when we got to Karlsruhe I was gob-smacked to see a set of running boards drop from the train chassis and the train suddenly went from the railway line we'd just travelled on onto tramlines to begin wending its way through the city taking more fare paying passengers!

 

The north east Metro system was extended to Hylton. Shame Beeching closed the station and ripped up the tracks. But all is reinstated as was, save a few swerves around housing and industrial estates.

I have a 1930's map of Hull. Railway tracks? Apart from the obvious, there are numerous industries, factories etc with their own branch lines. And the docks? Unbelievable. Reinstating any of those ripped up lines in the here and now would be impossible. The future? Maybe.

Check out Hull History Nerd on YouTube.

 

In the days you could buy one ticket in Eastern Europe that was the only one you needed for a train to the ports, a ship to Hull, a train to Liverpool & a ship to New York.

 

I don't think Hull History Nerd has covered that, but I am sure he was on a train programme that covered it. Maybe Michael Portillo?

 

Or maybe the Railway Architecture guy?

 

The Metro is currently being further extended up to Ashington. It will then connect Sunderland, Newcastle, Newcastle Airport, the communities North and South of the Tyne and South Northumberland. All by utilizing existing rail track either recently closed, earmarked for closure or shared with other rail users. The only newly built sections were the underground beneath Newcastle and Gateshead and bridges to cross the Tyne and the Ouseburn Valley, at the start of the development 45 years ago. Existing stations were incorporated but plenty of additional stops were added which are basically just stopping platforms.

I've long thought that Hull and the surrounding area would benefit from a similar approach. As you say, a lot of track is already in place, for example you could utilise the high level Hull & Barnsley section which currently loops the city. The existing Scarborough line could be used and lines laid down in the middle of some duel carriageways. (This happens on the continent a lot. eg Cologne). Bit of tunneling to get out of Paragon to the East and you're putting together a decent rapid transit system.

All you need is a bit of vision and ambition.

 

And money, lots of money.

 

It's mental.