Wednesday 30 July 2014

East Reading park-and-ride and link road hotting up (unfortunately) #rdguk

Things had started to quieten down with the East Reading park-and-ride and link road scheme (map here) but in the last month or so a few significant things have happened.

Firstly the government has made a funding announcement. Fortunately East Reading park-and-ride and the link road were not included in the immediate funding. However funding has been promised from 2016/17 onwards.

This funding will be dependent on a successful planning application and a business case which stacks up. In a separate funding bid to the government, Wokingham Council have unfortunately secured some money to do the planning application work.

This is bad news for the Thames Side area and will represent a wasted opportunity of being able to spend this money on sustainable transport solutions.

So what next?

I have asked for an update from Reading’s transport planners on the things mentioned above.

I think it is time to have another small meeting of interested residents to plan the next steps of the campaign to defend the Thames Side and tackle congestion in a sustainable way.

What do others think?

2 comments:

d8smt said...

Would be interesting to explore the possibility of a green, mass rapid transport solution from an East Reading park/ride into the centre (& I don't mean buses!). Maybe like a Maglev or something that would relieve traffic through East Reading gateway and encourage commuters based on convenience & speed ?

Unknown said...

There does seem to be a conflict of various interests.
East reading needs a Traffic solution, a bit more agressive than a bus lane and bus lay byes, and in times past this was a link road from the A329, past Tesco to Vastern Road, with or without a third bridge to playhatch.
A mass Transport scheme from the A329 area to the Town Center needs a mass number of people, not just a couple of hundred commuters twice a day.
A link road from A329 to Napier Road does offer a solution, but this would be at the expense of green space at Coal Wood and tarmac at Broken Brow.
Why Has Wokingham taken command of resolving East Reading Traffic Problems.?
But maybe if Our Traffic Commissioner is not able to address the problem because he is too busy building a leisure cycle bridge to Xchurch meadow, the community can find an answer