GlastOn the buses

As we suggested yesterday, Thom Yorke's complaints about public transport links to Glastonbury were a little unfair.

Glastonbury's press office have also said that it wasn't fair:

“[We’re] not sure what Thom is on about specifically, but there have always been extra trains put on for the festival, which arrive at the local Castle Cary train station.

“From there there's a free shuttle bus service to the festival site. There are also special bus services from all the local towns.

“Last year, in order to cut down on the number of cars, we issued 25,000 tickets linked directly to coach travel from all the UK's major towns; this reduced the number of cars by about 7,000.”

The suggestion that each car that turned up at Glastonbury contained an average of three and a half people seems a little unlikely from where we're sitting - especially with the way tickets were sold as pairs and not bunches of four - but that would suggest more, not fewer, cars off the road.

Bussed off: Radiohead rule out Glastonbury

Radiohead's decision to not play Glastonbury is, apparently, due to the lack of decent bus services, says Thom Yorke:

"[We're] trying to [...] only play in areas that have a public transport infrastructure in place.

“So that rules out Glastonbury for this year. Maybe we can work out a plan for the future. They’re probably sick of the sight of us anyway.”

To be fair to Glastonbury, they've always been pretty good with bringing people to the venue by public transport - even as far away as Birmingham New Street on the Thursday you can see the influence of the festival on Britain's transport network; back before buying a ticket became a military operation, you'd be able to pick up an entry pass from the Badgerline Coach people in Bristol. Things have probably changed now, somewhat, what with tickets costing about the same as a small car.

Woman rides bus

While we support Chrissie Hynde and the campaign to ensure that public transport in Akron is properly funded and accessible to all, we're not entirely convinced that her publicised bus trip is quite the way to go about things.

After all, going "woo-hoo, look at me - I'm on a BUS for charity" doesn't exactly suggest that going by bus is a normal, everyday event for Hynde. People who travel the bus every day don't exactly issue press releases about it. It's like a slightly-less-cringeworthy version of those celebs who sleep out on the streets for a night to raise "awareness" of homelessness.

And, although we believe in public transport with every fibre of our being, we're not sure that Hynde's quote makes much sense, either:

If you feel you have to have a car, you feel trapped," she said, adding that people who rely only on cars "forget what it is to walk and enjoy the city."

The second half, yes, unquestionably. But do car owners really feel trapped? We think she probably meant something less soundbitey - along the lines of 'in a city with no public transport, if you can't afford a car, you feel trapped', but instead she wound up making it sound like one of the few unquestionable positives of car ownership - the power to go anywhere tarmac and gasoline prices will let you - is outweighed by the car ownership itself.