New bid for rail link between Marple and Stockport

[Dave]

Returning to the original subject of this thread (trains), this useful statement from SMBC sets out clearly what is envisaged in the feasibility study which has just been announced.   It confirms that any new rail link between Rose Hill and Stockport would indeed be a 'spur' off the existing Guide Bridge to Stockport line, which is surely the only practical solution.

https://www.stockport.gov.uk/news/government-awards-grant-to-develop-plans-for-rail-link-between-Ashton-Stockport

It's helpful that the study will be looking not just at Rose Hill to Stockport, but also Ashton to Stockport, all as part of one scheme.  Which might help make the economics of the scheme stack up (you can always hope.........).

[Randonneur]

You can dress it up and call it whatever you wish.

If I don't pay it and have both a valid mot and insurance you'll find it won't be on the public highway for very long!

Well as you have been reminded, you don't pay road tax. What is it about a certain section of motorists that are obsessed by this thought that they still pay road tax and this therefore entitling to priority over certain other road users.

if you are paying a tax then it may pay a vehicle emission tax, this being calculated on how polluting that the vehicle is that you drive. For those that use more environmentally friendly models, this tax amounts to zero.

[andrewbowden]

It's simple.  You pay for the right to drive down a road (via Vehicle Excise Duty.). But the charge doesn't specifically pay for roads.  It goes into the general pot.  Just like the duties on fuel, alcohol, VAT and more.

They won't, but the government could decide tomorrow not to spend a single penny on road repair and development, and they'd still be able to charge you for the right to drive on them.

You could argue it's all semantics.  But that's just the way taxation works in this country.

[GM]

You can dress it up and call it whatever you wish.

If I don't pay it and have both a valid mot and insurance you'll find it won't be on the public highway for very long!

[wheels]

I pay for that right to use the Queens highways, through that road tax.

Plus your glossing over the 75% tax on fuel, or whatever scandalous amount it is.

No you don't Road Fund Tax was abolished in 1937. Highways are paid out of general taxation by all of us.

[GM]

I pay for that right to use the Queens highways, through that road tax.

Plus your glossing over the 75% tax on fuel, or whatever scandalous amount it is.

[amazon]

Same people who pay for you to drive down any road you like as much as you like, for the relatively minimal fee of your Vehicle Excise Duty I would guess.

I pay £20 a year for my car to have that honour.

I dont drive anymore .

[andrewbowden]

And who pays for your free buses .

Same people who pay for you to drive down any road you like as much as you like, for the relatively minimal fee of your Vehicle Excise Duty I would guess.

I pay £20 a year for my car to have that honour.

[amazon]

If buses were free there would be substantially fewer cars on the road.

And who pays for your free buses .

[GM]

What utter tosh.

[royal_marple]

If buses were free there would be substantially fewer cars on the road.

[GM]

Well that'll be nice seeing all the every 10 minute bus service all bunched together in a queue on Dan bank!.

[andrewbowden]

.

What we actually need to do is give people useful alternatives - then those who NEED to drive can do so, while those just using a car becuase it's more convenient / cheaper can benefit from improved (more frequent, more direct, less expensive) public transport, or can get on a bike without fearing they might not get to the other end of their journey as some half-asleep commuter knocked them off while takng a bite from the breakfast they HAVE to eat on the move as it tale so long to commute by car....

On that note, there's a funding bid to improve public transport in the Greater Manchester area.  One of the things they want to do is have 70 bus routes with a ten minute frequency.  The routes haven't been specified but a map they have released clearly shows the route of the 383/384.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/greater-manchesters-new-bus-network-21986423#ICID=Android_MENNewsApp_AppShare

[nbt]

building more roads won't stop people driving: if anything it will encourage more car use, see the science of "induced demand". Short term, work like that will cause more issues as roads are closed while they are "improved" or junctions are constructed, then within a few years people will be complaining that the new road is too busy and we nee more roads.

What we actually need to do is give people useful alternatives - then those who NEED to drive can do so, while those just using a car becuase it's more convenient / cheaper can benefit from improved (more frequent, more direct, less expensive) public transport, or can get on a bike without fearing they might not get to the other end of their journey as some half-asleep commuter knocked them off while takng a bite from the breakfast they HAVE to eat on the move as it tale so long to commute by car....

[amazon]

How much of the rush hour traffic is people who actually work IN Stockport though? Most of the traffic seems to be heading towards the Portwood and Bredbury motorway entrances.

Thats why we needed a new Bredbury by pass not a a train line .