The Wharf Comment: River travel

By Giles Broadbent on January 20, 2010 12:24 PM |

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It is in the nature of think-tank proposals that they are heavy on vision and light on detail. That goes with the territory.

This inevitably leaves a flank exposed. Those on the inside can easily find fault, perhaps viewing the authors as well-meaning amateurs, finding the illusion of clarity in muddied waters.

But that would be a shame. We don't dispute that the Policy Exchange's A Rate Of Knots has (to switch transport metaphors) driven a coach and horses through a mire of accepted practice and leapt unencumbered over practical obstacles.

However, the report is daring to think along the right lines. It is daring to upend a boxful of accepted wisdom to see what falls out.

We applaud the aim - to link east and west with a riverbus service that is, as far as possible, interchangeable with the Tube. We applaud the motive - viewing the river from a commuter's point of view and working back. We would rise to our feet and applaud the execution if it were ever to come about in anything like this form.

In short, the report may be flawed but somewhere in those 82 pages, the pick 'n' mix ingredients of the right answer lies.