Sunday 26 October 2008

Breaking news: everything is complete crap













• Traffic congestion is worse than a decade ago

• The investment needs of the railways have been almost completely ignored, in particular to increase capacity

• Bus services in most of the UK have remained poor, especially in comparison with European rivals

• Tram schemes have been abandoned, despite proving effective at getting motorists out of their cars

Walking and cycling have been largely neglected

• The government is afraid of addressing the environmental impact of aviation

• Transport carbon emissions continue to rise.


Traffic has grown by 15% overall in Britain between 1996 and 2006 and by 27% on the motorways.

200 kilometres of new roads are still being built per year despite Labour's pledge to make new road building "a measure of the last resort".

New starts on road building projects are now outstripping those being completed, while the total number of kilometres driven by all vehicles registered in Britain has increased from 441 billion to 506 billion in the past 10 years.

"Ten years on the problems are still there and they have got worse, because Labour has dodged making major decisions to address the key issues.
They have failed to achieve their own objective, which was to move us away from dependence on the car and use more sustainable public transport."

Meanwhile

A CROSS-PARTY group of seven MPs and two council leaders have joined forces to campaign for a `no' vote in Greater Manchester's transport referendum. They have set up a `Stop the Charge' alliance, along with more than 250 businesses, to fight against the Transport Innovation Fund bid - which would include a peak-hour, weekday congestion charge.