Outside my place of work there is heavy construction going on.
It will be a total of nearly 2 years of pointless work.
Some bright spark thought it would be twee to have tram tracks running for 500 yards from the promenade to the Blackpool North Train station.
Local hotels and busnesses were asked to vote..
The majority said No!
The "democratic" powers that be over ruled and proclaimed it was to go ahead..
Ironically under the concrete of the road are very old tram tracks which were covered up.
These are being removed and cut up.
I cant impress enough just how much work is going on...
£28m which could have been spent in a much better way.
Blackpool is really run down with loads of shops boarded up..
Plenty of homeless people and druggies sleeping rough..
Otherwise its a positive delight !!!!
The photos show a massive drill for installing deep concrete foundations I assume.
It's mad isn't it?
Trams were a great means of getting around in the first half of the 20th century, until planners ripped all the tracks up in anticipation of everyone having their own personal transport.
They were right, of course, but they didn't realise quite how much traffic we would create in our individual tin boxes. So now we have reconfigured our cities at great expense to cater for cars - with a negative impact on the people who have to live in them.
It would be nice to redress the balance a bit and have better public transport but I really don't think trams are the answer. I reckon £28m would buy a lot of clean electric or hybrid buses and you might even have money left over to subsidise the routes.
Added bonus - no wet tramlines to terrify motorcyclists.
Just got to hope it doesn't end up like the tram system planned for Edinburgh, cost shit loads more, took a lot longer to build and doesn't go to the places planned. Money well spent :whistling:
You will be pleased to know we have the drongo brigade here too.
We had a.National Flag referendum.....$26 million because some didnt like the Union Jack in the corner of our flag. They were most likely the recent Chinese imports. Money well spent.....flag did'nt change.
Its shocking with all the cuts going on what they actually spend money on!
I live in Somerset we are loosing loads of facilities everywhere but still the build crap loads of houses for 1000's of people to move in and have no facilities to use.
Most recently in Taunton they spent crap loads of money on huge boards around town that show you how many spaces are in the park and ride, they are now closing the park and ride!
You can't make this stuff up!
And don't get me started on the High Speed Train link. 50 billion quid - it would be cheaper and easier to move Birmingham closer to London.
The Edinburgh tram as it stands (they are thinking of extending it to Leith)
Only replaced 1 bus route that ran to the airport front door every 10mins .
If it's extended it'll replace 1 other route that again is every few mins .
How they get away with it is anybodies guess but time and time again it seams to happen and the big companies involved ate all owned by the government mates (doesn't matter what brand of government either)
:cheers:
Since this is the moan section today . . . front page of this mornings paper, Council has decided to let electric scooters in & used around the city. They go up to 27kph & no helmet is needed! Might also add these are ridden on the footpath, the council are not sure if they're allowed to be ridden on the road???
So many things wrong / inconsistent here, No helmet? yet cyclists going slower have to have them by law. The bloody Mayor said "All the evidence shows that wearing a helmet puts you at far greater risk than not wearing a helmet because you assume you are safer than you are" So when these halfwits come off their scooter & skid along the footpath, who's going to be paying for their medical bills? Not them as there's no licence & no contribution to ACC levy like cars & bikes have to. :furious:
That speed on a footpath? Just awesome ya tossers! People coming out of a shop door straight into some halfwit shooting along the footpath on a scooter doing over 20k? With no hat?! :jack: Bastards are mad, :frustrated: glad I very rarely go in to the city centre now.
We definitely need a 'soapbox' icon ... aaah wait...we've got one :soapbox:
:rofl2: :rofl2:
You can always count on politicians to find ways of pissing large amounts of money away on headline grabbing projects, just before election times.
To us, better = applied in a more sensible way to matters that really need to be addressed.
To them, better = more publicity for themselves.
Money is just a number to them - doesn't actually mean anything. It's all about getting elected.