1:05pm Friday 3rd July 2009
RE: Last week’s letter from Jim Whitehead headlined: You don’t need cars.
YES Mr Whitehead we, and the Government do need cars.
The real facts are that cars, vans, and trucks pay £46bn (12% of ALL Government revenue).
Please note that this does not include parking charges.
In return, the road users get £4.6bn spent on all aspects of the road network.
That is new roads, repairs, lighting, signs, crossings, tree cutting etc.
Public transport buses receive £4.4bn of subsidies (40% of their income). Public transport trains receive £ 6.3bn of subsidies (6% of the population use trains).
This is not the whole figure as there is no VAT charged on public transport fares so the true figures are 15% greater.
The idea that any significant reduction in road transport could be transferred to public transport is complete nonsense.
Even a 2-3% increase in numbers of people using public transport would cripple the system as there is not enough capacity.
For example, a 100% increase in goods and materials transport by rail would reduce the number of 40ft trucks by 1%, BUT there would be no space for 15-20% of all the passenger trains!
Unfortunately, the Government is totally addicted to all the things they tell us we should give up.
Road taxes £46bn, booze £9bn and fags £8bn are the backbone of Government income.
Unlike income tax etc, they only ever go up.
Without them, all other taxes would increase by 15-20%.
Please note all the above figures are from official publications.
David Fagan, Southview, High Wycombe
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