Brussels Bureaucracy

From reading an article in the paper yesterday I get the feeling we are likely to be put under the Brussels thumb again.  There are two caveats of course - first that you should never believe all you read in the paper, and secondly that this is currently not enacted in law.

The key issue is that Brussels wants to make users of transport pay the whole cost and for there to be no subsidies by the government and have issued a White Paper to this effect.

The article was focussed on rail travel, with the concern that some fares could rise by up to fifty percent.  The White Paper also calls for an increase in road charges (as if they aren't high enough already).  No mention is made of other transport options such as bus and tram but they may well also get caught up in this. Indeed the increased road charges are likely to hit the cost of bus travel.

What on earth are they trying to achieve.  If rail charges went up without increased road charges it would reverse the government's desire to get people on to public transport for so called environmental reasons, but if road costs go up also then it is likely that some of the population will be unable to afford to even get to work in order to pay these costs.

In the days when many people worked in the local mill or factory then travel to work was often a short journey which was frequently walked.  That however was the 19th and early 20th centuries.  We are now in the 21st century and the world works differently.

It is not practical to change our requirement for travel significantly, the world has evolved.

Not only do we have the issues for individuals travelling to work, what about all the additional costs for businesses.  Firms will encounter increased transport costs for goods or overheads on necessary staff travel.  Some meetings may become video conferences but the day of the salesman who travels to showcase the company's products are not over yet.

Apparently a spokesman for the European Commission stated 'These are just proposals and any measures would have to be agreed by national governments'  We have seen that before and it is probable that a few powerful governments (of which ours is not one) would steamroller the proposals through and ensure all countries complied with the EC Big Brother.