Jeremy Hilton

Liberal Democrats in Gloucester welcome public transport plans

TRAVEL and transport will improve in Gloucester if new Liberal Democrat public transport policies are put into operation, claim local members of the party.

The Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg MP launched the policies on 3rd June. The proposals include improving bus services by putting them under the control of local councils where bus companies have failed to provide improvements themselves; improving local rail services; introducing strong environmental criteria for new roads and building a high-speed rail network to cut journey times for longer distance travel.

“These are radical policies which would help address some of the transport problems in Gloucester,” said Cllr. Jeremy Hilton, Liberal Democrat leader on the city council.

“Long distance north south rail services now by-pass Gloucester and the service to London could be improved if the track from Kemble to Swindon was dual tracked. We must do more to improve public transport in particular the bus services into and out of the city. The axing of the dedicated park and ride bus service with its circular route around the city centre, from St. Oswald’s Park, is an indication that the both Labour and the Tories cannot be trusted to invest in public transport.”

“Transport is now high on people’s lists of concerns. Despite lots of talk by Labour, public transport is expensive and plagued by problems of decades of failure to invest in it by both Labour and Conservative governments.

“With the cost of driving shooting up, bus and rail services in Gloucester desperately need a boost. Our proposals will help to create a modern local transport system fit for the decades to come, rather than for decades ago.

“The policy proposals will be debated at our conference in September and before then, members in Gloucester will be discussing them at our regular meetings. We are looking forward to a good debate.”

 

Notes:

Radical transport proposals to increase long-term rail investment, introduce road user pricing to tackle pollution and congestion and hand control of buses back to local authorities were launched today by the Liberal Democrats.

The additional investment will be paid for by introducing emissions-linked charges on road freight and internal flights.

The main proposals include:

· Cutting fuel duty and abolishing VED over the next 10 years and introducing a cost-neutral road user pricing scheme on motorways and trunk roads

· Building a high speed rail network paid for by introducing emissions-linked charges on road freight and internal flights

· Introducing rolling contracts for train operating companies to increase long-term investment and improve services

· Give power to control local bus services back to local authorities

· Introducing a new fund for rural transport

· Giving passengers a stronger voice to improve local transport services through a new passenger watchdog

 

Contact: Jeremy Hilton 01452 501206 or 07771 794407

 

back