The surprising adventures of Rich on public transport

I'm breaking with one of my self-imposed rules that I would not use this blog to carry on about my day to day activities, but I think this little story forms part of a wider tale about public transport. In particular, for me, it illustrates just why public transport has, for many people, yet to become a viable long term alternative to car usage.

Anyway, my car yesterday went in for its MOT which meant that for the first time since starting my new job two weeks ago, I had to rely on public transport to get myself from Telford to Walsall. My trip to work went something like this:

7.05 - Left my house
7.27 - Caught the train from Wellington station
8.20 - Arrived at Birmingham New Street
8.39 - Caught train for Rugeley Trent Valley
8.59 - Arrived in Walsall
9.15 - Arrived at work

On the face of it, such a journey doesn't look so horrific. However, the first thing that you will notice is that it, in effect, took me two hours to get from Telford to Walsall. Those of you familiar with the geography of Birmingham and the Black Country will also notice that, in one of those annoying quirks of the British rail network, I had to effectively double back on myself in the trajectory of my overall journey. Additionally, if I was to get a train from Wolverhampton to Walsall, that would take me 55 minutes, stopping at numerous stations in between, seemingly going into Birmingham, then back up to Walsall. Next, consider that on a normal day driving to work, the journey to Walsall would take me less than half the time it took by train. Even with the inevitable congestion on the M6, this journey rarely takes me more than 45 minutes, and I expect that when the schools go back the journey will still take not much more than an hour.

I know I've strayed into rant territory, but quite frankly it needed saying. For the UK to truly move away from car usage, it appears to me that we need substantial investment in the public transport infrastructure. Granted, we are in a recession and cuts are being made, but for us to have a truly world class rail system we need a clear vision, that will be adhered to, of how the government (whoever it may be) will drive forward the development of the network so that we can move towards higher speed, electrified lines across the country.