Better Transport

Experience: I organised the Half Hour Train Campaign in Bristol, which called for a more frequent local rail service. The city’s rail network is a great resource but it’s being wasted because trains don’t run often enough. We handed out postcards for people to send to the Council, and 561 people sent them. The campaign was a great success, with the Council agreeing to invest £450,000 in another train so that services can run more often. I started working at the Campaign for Better Transport in May 2007.

Why I work for the Campaign for Better Transport: Transport brings together lots of crucial issues about the way we live. The major emergency is climate change, but there’s also a broader issue about what kind of society we want to live in. I think everyone should be able to get everywhere using public transport, walking and cycling. Other European countries have shown this is possible, so we don’t even have to bring down capitalism to achieve it!

Biggest transport gripe: People who drive 4x4s when they don’t need them. I don’t just mean people in cities – most people in the countryside could get by fine without them too. They’re an incredible example of denial in the face of climate change and peak oil - as well as being dangerous and pretentious.

Favourite means of transport: The London Underground. If you don’t have a car in Bristol (where I lived before), you have to plan carefully how you’re going to get from A to B, and you often feel like a second class citizen. Public transport in London is so easy and everyone uses it. The rest of the country also deserves decent public transport.

Cat's rail blog Cat's bus blog Our public transport campaign