Road To Defeat?
The Big Issue: Transport
Could Labour's road to an historic third term be blocked by its transport record? Paul Robinson reports
It's a question pondered by many a driver sat stewing in yet another rush-hour traffic jam.
Whatever happened to New Labour's transport revolution?
After all, it's now seven years since Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott declared war on Britain's culture of car dependency and vowed to give bus and rail travel a fresh lease of life.
Local authorities were handed powers to impose road tolls, and encouraging noises were soon being made about the construction of 25 new tram systems.
By the election of 2001, Labour's manifesto was still talking confidently about its drive to "improve and expand rail and road travel".
But the following year, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling admitted that the aim of cutting traffic congestion by five per cent by the end of the decade had become unrealistic.
Today, the Government's target of a 50 per cent rise in train passenger numbers by 2010 is also looking increasingly unobtainable, despite vast investment in the nation's railways.
London and Durham are the only two places in the country to have introduced congestion charges, while, as Leeds knows to its cost, money worries have left a number of tram projects stuck on the drawing board.
Despite the setbacks, however, Labour insists it has plenty to feel satisfied about, boasting that the equivalent of £260m of public cash is being ploughed into the transport network every WEEK and that bus use has risen in each of the last three years.
[And we all know what "transport" means when they are talking about "investment"!]
Labour's 2005 manifesto includes an impressive list of plans and proposals, including a feasibility study on a North-South high-speed rail link and increased capacity on key motorway routes such as the M1.
The Conservatives, likewise, want to build more roads, but are also aiming to ease the burden they say is being placed on the country's motorists by speed cameras.
Over in the Liberal Democrat camp, meanwhile, the talk is of additional money for public transport and sweeping measures to persuade people to stop relying on their cars to make even the simplest journeys.
So, what's the verdict on Labour from the industry and its various observers?
Metro, the body which oversees public transport in West Yorkshire, has concerns about plans to further centralise control of the railways at the expense of local concerns.
Metro has also criticised what it says is Labour's failure to get to grips with private bus companies who concentrate on lucrative routes at the expense of the needs of communities they are supposed to serve.
Also on the roads, Philip Hale from the RAC welcomes the speed camera review proposed by the Tories.
Less predictably, the introduction of congestion charges – a key Lib Dem pledge – also wins qualified support from the motoring organisation.
Mr Hale acknowledged that tolls had worked well in London, but said any attempt to bring them in elsewhere would only pay off if the cities in question had bus and rail systems on a par with those in the capital.
23 April 2005
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My emphasis .
And [comments].