道路整備／road
maintenance and improvement
公共交通機関／public transport services
政府／government
環境／environment
〜に害を与える／harm
Governments
should concentrate the majority of their transport
funding on improving public transport services. Aside
from the well-documented harmful effects to the environment
created by the huge consumption of fossil fuels by
cars, there are more immediate, and in some ways more
tangible effects in neglecting to spend money on public
transport. Take the case of Britain. In the 1980s the
Conservative government, led by Mrs. Thatcher, systematically
privatized and sold off the previously publicly-owned
railway network in the name of "competition".
There followed years of neglect and shoddy maintenance
by
poorly run companies managed by corrupt executives
in the service of profit. This disastrous and unregulated
lack of maintenance-funding led to four separate train
crashes in almost as many years which killed hundreds
of people and left many more bereaved. (131 words)
