When the glossy brochures arrived outlining the scale of the investment that Manchester’s transport authorities were hoping to unlock, in return for a congestion charging scheme at peak times, the map in the centre of the brochure made Greater Manchester’s public transport system look like the London underground map.
Like me, your eye will have been drawn to the part of the world where you live, or work, and how the plan will affect you. You will have mused on where you might get on a train, where you might cross the M60 during peak times and where the inner charging ring is likely to be.
Like me, your personal decision on whether you think this is a “bad scheme” – as opponents of the plan say with great vehemence – will depend on whether you’ve been offered a park-and-ride scheme, a Metrolink extension, a bus lane, or absolutely nothing at all.
That “what’s in it for me” consideration will be in the minds of the voters when they come to mark their ballot papers in December. And as our Power of Ten question this month posed, there is great interest from the whole region in this important strategic question.
Buying into the long-term vision of the scheme takes a greater leap of faith. As Sir Howard Bernstein says in his interview with me this month, “once you get your head around it, it’s a no-brainer.” The trouble is, people can’t get their heads past bus lanes and £5-a-day charges.
Public transport across the whole of the North West is patchy – try commuting in from Accrington, as the young man who designs this magazine does – but the scheme on offer is not a panacea for the faults of the present system. That it is presented as such has been a function of poor presentation and wishful spinning of what it can reasonably deliver.
One has to applaud the bravery of a city region authority that wants better trains and trams so badly it is prepared to bet everything on an audacious, complex and forward-looking plan. Congestion charging will also become a reality in most British cities and that – on balance – Manchester, by getting in early, won’t lose a competitive advantage by introducing one in 2013. But the nit-picky details of individual people’s concerns will probably lead to a no vote. And when the gravestone is erected over these plans the inscription will read: “we promised them bus lanes to Bolton”.
Michael Taylor, editor