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Originally Posted by pig
We need a cheap, clean and cost effective public transport system. I also think we need more trams and more tubes (outside of london) especially in cities like Birmingham.
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I would agree and definitely want to see more mass transportation systems. But they cost
a lot of money. And it's either the end users who are paying for them (via high ticket prices) or we're hiding the costs in some sort of subsidy (which means they're still not cheap). If you were building a town from scratch maybe it would be OK, but if you're building them in existing population centres then the costs have to include compulsory purchases, consultation processes, land purchasing, legal costs etc - all before you even get on site (at a time where commodity and labour prices aren't low).
I'm sure we can do better than we're doing at the moment, but I don't forsee it being easy to produce a cheap transport system (unless people cycle everywhere - which is hardly suitable for everyone). In the longer term it might be easier for people to work from home more often, or for people to live near their workplace.
With other longer journeys perhaps people should get used to it being expensive to travel long distances (if it is generated demonstrable external costs when they do).