(Photo Swaythling 1965 copyright Rail Thing)
A magnificent piece of daftness (via the EU) in yesterday's Telegraph (thanks to Anna and Debs for finding this).
EU to ban cars from cities by 2050
Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years.
Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target of 'zero' for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU's future cities.
The European Commission on Monday unveiled a "single European transport area" aimed at enforcing "a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers" by 2050.
The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.
Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target of "zero" for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU's future cities.
Siim Kallas, the EU transport commission, insisted that Brussels directives and new taxation of fuel would be used to force people out of their cars and onto "alternative" means of transport.
"That means no more conventionally fuelled cars in our city centres," he said. "Action will follow, legislation, real action to change behaviour."
The Association of British Drivers rejected the proposal to ban cars as economically disastrous and as a "crazy" restriction on mobility.
"I suggest that he goes and finds himself a space in the local mental asylum," said Hugh Bladon, a spokesman for the BDA.
"If he wants to bring everywhere to a grinding halt and to plunge us into a new dark age, he is on the right track. We have to keep things moving. The man is off his rocker."
Mr Kallas has denied that the EU plan to cut car use by half over the next 20 years, before a total ban in 2050, will limit personal mobility or reduce Europe's economic competitiveness.
"Curbing mobility is not an option, neither is business as usual. We can break the transport system's dependence on oil without sacrificing its efficiency and compromising mobility. It can be win-win," he claimed.
Christopher Monckton, Ukip's transport spokesman said: "The EU must be living in an alternate reality, where they can spend trillions and ban people from their cars.
This extraordinary article opens several tins of worms!
What sort of idiot seriously believes that in 39 years time there will still be any petrol or diesel powered cars? We will be well down the depletion side of the Peak Oil bell curve by then with conventional (and in my view all) cars just a distant memory. What on earth is the EU doing wasting time on forecasting that far ahead, particularly without any reference to the realities of energy-depleted Europe? And why do the spokesmen make even bigger fools of themselves by engaging with this Dan Dare nonsense?
If this is the level of intellectual and factual input employed by EU decision makers then they are more decadent and irrelevant than even I thought!
Go back to your silver space suits, food in a tube, individual jet pack and colonies on Mars fantasies boys and girls. Out here in the real world we'll get on with real planning for a real future and get the railways back before it's too late!
