Losing Track - 7 - Cars And Concrete

[@lesparks126]

The Buchanan prediction for car ownership was about right on. I still like taking public transport when possible though.

[@rickravenrumney]

I watch in disgust. This happened in the USA in the 1960s also, we lost our Suburban Streetcars and Railroad. Now many places are trying to reopen old right of ways only to discover that many have been built over. What a waste of capital investment. Even if the ROWs were made just for independent buses it would have been much better than nothing.

[@rexremedy1733]

I love concrete! And also steel. And smoke. And all kinds of heavy industry stuff. We need it!

[@villevirtanen00]

The line to Washington Northumberland closed in 1963, one of the first post Beeching closures. It was designed as a new town in 1964. Great timing ;) Washington is with its 60.000+ inhabitants one of the largest settlements in the UK without a train station.

[@bobtudbury8505]

labour closed the lines not beeching

[@petergriffin3194]

@@bobtudbury8505 Why didn’t Thatcher reopen the lines then?

[@bobtudbury8505]

@@petergriffin3194 r u for real? check facts not mouth off clueless

[@danielfield2570]

Really interesting as a resident of Headingley and a Loiner all my life to see how could’ve looked. Very glad they didn’t go through with the motorway plans, was bad enough what they did with the IRR and in south Leeds.

[@johnclayden1670]

What an excellent series! And this is my second run through ...

[@TheWacoKid1963]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="846">14:06</a> That's not Leeds, It's Swan house roundabout and the Central motorway, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. A lot of historic buildings were infact demolished to build that road and the Swan house building.

[@martinpiggins5772]

We’ve never needed trains as much as we do today and still nothing is done about it.????? Tories 👎

[@rexremedy1733]

Martin Piggins no. It’s just strong interest groups who want to fill their pocket at the expense of national economy. As long as there are no viable alternatives to car based mobility, they can jack up the price for this kind of mobility however high they deem fit to keep their pockets filling. It’s not political. It’s interest groups of the established industries and elites.

[@Bungle-UK]

You mean aside from the hundreds of millions of pounds that was spent propping up the system during the pandemic?

[@bobtudbury8505]

you need to check again...and remember it was labour that closed all the lines in the 60's , not beeching or the torys, LABOUR.please learn the facts and vote accordingly

[@petergriffin3194]

@@bobtudbury8505 You’re against trains, are you against tradition?

[@bobtudbury8505]

@@petergriffin3194 how old are you? if it's tradition you want then buy a ox or a horse??

[@DoktorLorenz]

Buchanan almost got it right on car ownership, in 2010 there were 63million people & 31 million cars

[@digitallifeline162]

How do you get to work??? I used to get the train and then the line closed. I then got the bus and then they took the bus off.

[@PeaveyPV20]

Beaching never ran down the railways, the government did.

[@LondonRider12]

And thus, by extension, the electorate did. 😢

[@deep_dive6699]

Actual number of cars per person in 2010 was 519/1000

[@andrewoakeshott7759]

True. I think it’s fair to say that this series fails to recognise that for some journeys (and commutes), mostly in thinly populated areas, cars are indispensable. That said, the heavy congestion and general poor quality of life in urban areas predominantly designed around the use of the car, reveals that the British government (like many Western governments at the time) for far too long relied very heavily on the car across the board, while decimating other forms of transport, including public transport. Only in the last two decades or so have successive governments realised their costly mistakes and are desperately trying to reverse some of them, but at humongous cost (see HS2 and other projects). Any common sense transport policy should NEVER have put all its eggs in one basket, but then again, that’s politicians for you!

[@jermainelong1843]

Hey all we need is a congestion charge in central London - that'll sort out all the traffic...oh, on second thoughts...

[@davidbradshaw659]

Petrol's free again, at a price,

[@davidbradshaw659]

@@bobsemple7660 yes, free to purchase.

[@ZeldaFitz]

Think of a problem and then think of the part that the car played in its development and you will see that in almost every way we could lead better lives without them.

[@TelexToTexel]

I wouldn't call this series a documentary, it is far too biased. Why is only Kerry Hamilton allowed to voice her opinion? I love watching old shows like this, but this is more like a party political broadcast seen from a particular viewpoint, than presentation of a topic and its history. Particularly seeing that the series originally ran on Channel 4, one of the main channels in Britain at the time, I would have expected more of a round table approach where other parties than Hamilton also had a chance to voice their opinion.

[@bobtudbury8505]

i'm glad the car won. the personal freedom it gave us all is awesome

[@danielfield2570]

Freedom to sit in Traffic Jams and choke on your own petrol fumes yes.

[@steveluckhurst2350]

c4 broadcasting transport 2000's propaganda

[@Bungle-UK]

So much bias here. I particularly love the distinction between cars and people, as if cars are creatures in their own right and don’t have people in them. This lady is a socialist and socialists love central state control. That’s why she hates cars - she doesn’t like the freedom that it bring to people. I agree that good public transport has a place, especially moving large numbers of people into city centres. However, rail and bus services can never replace the convenience and freedom that owning a car brings. As for Beeching, this was just a continuation of a closure process that had begun before the war. Too many lines shouldn’t have been built in the first place and no longer served a purpose. I’m not saying all the closures were justified, but it’s also foolish to suggest everything built during the railway mania of the 1800s should have been saved.

[@petergriffin3194]

You’re a pro-polluter

[@petergriffin3194]

I think (like you) we shouldn’t use planes to fly around overseas to America or Asia because they attack our personal freedom. We should build a transatlantic tunnel to ensure our freedom.