How much do we want a rail station?

Hi everyone,
Waiting today at Barnt Green for a train, which did not come (points failure near Longbridge) and then discovering that there would be nearly two hours to wait for the 145 bus to Cotteridge, gave me time to think about the problems of rural transport. Should I abandon the planned trip to Birmingham and have a coffee at Deli on the Green or pop in to see a friend ...or should I stay true to my principles and shout from the rooftops (or at least blog quietly) that rural transport in this country is in an underfunded mess and needs a good shake up?....Parish plan after parish plan  is asking for better buses and even rail stations but we get as far as the  service providers or Network Rail and the answer is`It does not fit in with our commercial plans` or `There is no business case`.. in other words size matters and your village just isn`t big enough. Surely just 30 cars per day off the roads and putting passengers into trains would help
If anyone wants to start a blog on this subject please reply to me and we`ll find out what we can do to reduce Lickey and Blackwell`s transport carbon footprint.
The intrepid Janet King   

Comments

[John Williams]

With the forthcoming 600 space multi-storey car park at Longbridge, it will become a local park and ride locations. This will do wonders for our footprint.

Even better, would it not be more realistic to lobby the Longbridge developers to provide a "hopper" type bus service to and from the new longbridge station?

The environmental impact (footprint) of building a station that is not really needed would be sizeable, and then, what about parking problems in villages not geared up for commuters?