Why public transport is in a mess

Quite apart from my Close Encounter of the Tube Kind with a double-decker bus a few weeks ago, I have long thought that the public transport system in Oxford is in mess. Take the example of busses to Risinghurst, an area on the outskirts of Oxford on the far side of Headington. It mostly consists of council and ex-council houses, and while most people have a car, there was a sizable minority of people who for one reason or another depended on public transport.

There was, until seven o'clock, a hideously unreliable bus twice an hour (nothing Sundays, of course). Meanwhile, there were tons of busses which went as far as Headington - sometimes one every five minutes. Because there were two companies operating basically the same route, they were in the habit of driving behind each other, trying to pick off the rivals's passangers - oops, sorry, customers. Naturally, the tickets weren't interchangable. The result was that the lucrative routes were choked by busses, while if you were trying to get somewhere less popular, bad luck. And don't even get me started on the fact that you could get to London round the clock, but getting back to Risinghurst after seven involved a long, dark, and rather dangerous walk.

The whole point about public transport is that it is not there to be a revenue-generating stream. It is there to provide a public service which will allow communities to function.

However, it seems that Oxford is at least better off than Newcastle or Manchester. Londoners, you con't know you're born.

(no subject)

It's tempting to wonder whether saying that you think the English won't accept a Scot as PM when your own party leader is called 'Cameron' isn't a gaff on more levels than the obvious 'annoys the Scots' one...