Getting around in Britain

Britain has almost the same population as France but less than half the space. With 238 people per square kilometre, it is a densely populat­ed country. So it is not surprising that the transport system is fairly com­prehensive. With the notable exception of the Highlands of Scotland, almost every square centimetre of the map of Britain is covered by a net­work of roads and railways.

As in most countries of the world, roads have taken over from rail as the major transport system. But trains in Britain are still a safe, fast and comfortable way of travelling. There is one big problem which deters many people from using them: the price. British trains are very expen­sive to travel on, at least if you do not know how to get the best deals. If you simply go into a station, buy a ticket and get on the train, you may end up paying a small fortune. To avoid a nasty shock, there are two se­crets: one, get a full list of all the special types of tickets available; and two, book in advance. As an example, in 1999 the full price of a London to Manchester return ticket was £ 119; a Super Saver ticket, which can­not be used in the rush hour, was £ 48; and a Virgin Value ticket, which has to be booked a minimum of three days in advance, was only £ 19 — saving exactly £ 100. If you are travelling from London, there is one oth­er useful piece of advice: make sure you go to the right station, as there are seven major and many smaller ones!

Much cheaper, and without all the restrictions about advanced book­ing and rush hours, are coach services. Of course, there are disadvantag­es: no restaurant, no room to walk around and no tables. The worst draw­back is that the coach station is usually in the middle of town, so there is

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a long struggle through traffic before your coach gets out onto the mo­torway.

Integrated transport?

The government has recently started talking about the ultimate so­lution to the problems — an integrated transport system. This means im­proving public services and making sure that they all work together as a system, rather than a series of disconnected parts. At present, if you need to take a train, a bus and a ferry for your journey, you will often find that the bus station is kilometres away from the train station, and the bus time­table does not match the ferry timetable. You end up taking taxis between stations, and spending hours sitting in waiting rooms. In many parts of the country, trains and buses compete with each other on one route, while another route has no service at all. An integrated transport system is ur­gently needed to address all these problems. But it will take a great deal of time, money and political will to achieve such a system.