First of all am going to say I would vote "NO" if i was allowed to vote but am not. I just use this Public Transport and the roads in the past. But i live in Liverpool so no vote for me.
Secondly i would say i think the government have made a mistake picking Manchester as the testing ground for this experiment. "Why" you may ask, the reason being like Liverpool, Manchester's people have never been scared to stick up when they see an injustice. Or miss an opportunity to "poke the Man in the eye". What does that have to do with the congestion charge? Well this is the biggest Class tax imposed in years. Basically if you can't afford to drive it will free up the roads for those that can?
So anyway back to my reason why i would vote "NO", these are just my reasons. If you are lucky enough to get a vote, please read up on the subject and make your own choice.
Reason 1: I already mentions it but i will again. It's a class tax. Your too poor to afford to pay therefore your not allowed to drive on my roads? It's like some medieval tax for passing through the Lord's Lands and if you can't pay it, then you have to walk the long way around. I used to drive, but was forced out of my car and on to the train because of the price of petrol. When i did drive in/out of Manchester using the M62 i always found Junction 10 to be the worse part of my journey. Will the congestion charge ease this traffic "No".
Reason 2: The lies - Why does the Government need to throw 3billion pounds at private companies to improve Manchester's travel networks. Are they admitting that they have fallen behind fixing every major city's travel network in the UK. "No", but they should do. When i did drive in the second busiest part of my journey was as the motorway ended and came on to Regent road and this was busy until you got past the beginning of the ring road. But i used to park here on the street and walk to work (20min). Why not just open huge free park and rides off the junction just before the end of the motorway. Put the 3billion pounds in the bank and run the park and ride off the interest? But then that doesn't make money does it, that doesn't make a profit after 30 years (more like ten).
Reason 3: The Trains (and trams) - Now as I've said already i now get the train, it's not a long train ride 45 Min's, but i am implored at the thought of such a bad service getting more millions of pounds to waste. For the last month I've taken the journey from Broad green Station at 7.56am about 25 times and only once has the train arrived on time. Today was another sample of how badly run the trains are, we arrived at Victoria the normal 7Min's late and the train stopped 800 yards from the station. We then sat there another 7 minutes while a platform was made available? My office is ten minutes away from the station and i was late before i even got off the train. My home journey is no better, i leave from Piccadilly and change at Newton-le-willows. The amount of trains that have been canceled when I've been at this station is stupid. I would say at least 3 trains a month, that's not late that's full stop canceled. The latest one, last week, the reason given lack of staff? Oh there is another train 20 Min's after a canceled on it just doesn't stop at my stop. No that one is another 20 Min's on top of that, so my 1 hour and 20 min (long getting home then coming in) journey now became 2 hours (a car on a good day at peak can do that in 50min). Now think about it, the trains have had plenty of time and money to get a service running that has been running for years. This is a line not even pushed to capacity. Imagine the chaos of an extra 1000 people trying to use the trains and trams. Wow we would get extra carriages, am more concerned with the train running on time or at all. Most of these trains are coming in from outside the Greater Manchester region, how do they intend to monitor and improve these? Name me one company that claims it couldn't do better with lots more cash. Also this thing about the tickets being kept at the same price, for how long. Who's to say in ten years time we aren't paying extra for our public transport, because the congestion charge is still paying the loan off...
Reason 4: The Biast: All this vote yes being thrown down our thoughts, i do take a perverse pleasure saying sorry i can't vote, but it would be a "NO" anyway.
Reason 5: Local economic: Am interested at the impact this will have on the shops of the area and the car parks of Manchester. But it doesn't happen over the weekend i hear you say. "No" that's right it doesn't, but Northern Rock wasn't in real financial trouble until the papers said they where. So picture this, a family of four wants to go the cinema. Would normally travel into Manchester to see a film on a Saturday morning, then shop a bit in the afternoon. The husband turns to the wife and Say's "Don't they charge to drive in to Manchester now". Wife replies, "no, they charge during the week, don't they". Husband says, "am not sure lets go to Cheshire Oaks instead, just to be safe". And this is what will stop people coming into the city at none charged times. Car parks, shops, cinemas, bars and restaurants will suffer.
Oh well I've had my rant - so it will be interesting to see how the public vote, i have a feeling that while most of the Manchester population is a "NO" voter, most of the "YES people are the sort to love this sort of thing and more likely to vote.
Cya Later (if by train MUCH LATER)
Andy
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