Traffic reducing measures 'will fail'

Monday, 7 July 2003 12:00 AM

The chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport has warned that Government plans to reduce traffic will fail because of a widening gap between motoring costs and public transport fares.

David Begg, the most senior ministerial adviser on transport, claimed in a report published today that ministers had 'over-promised and underdelivered' on their £180 billion transport plan which was meant to transform Britain's roads and railways by 2010.

The targets that the Government are expected to miss include reducing traffic congestion to below 2000 levels, increasing rail passenger growth by 50% and tripling the amount of cycling.

Mr Begg has suggested that the only solution is to introduce tolls on the country's busiest roads, the plans for which must be published in an update on the 10-year plan next year.

Road pricing, to be introduced for lorries from 2006, 'is one of the things I think we need to look at. Whether or not it is technically feasible...remains to be seen,' he said.

The Transport Secretary Alastair Darling will on Wednesday announce the biggest road-building programme since Labour came to power, including widening 60 miles of the M25 and possibly adding lanes to the M42 around Birmingham, the M60 around Manchester and the southern ends of the M1, A1 and M11.

Responding to the CfIT report the Liberal Democrat shadow transport secretary Don Foster said that Labour's transport plan is 'in tatters', with targets missed and targets abandoned.

'Alistair Darling must get to grips with the remorseless rise in road congestion, which is costing British businesses £20 billion per year,' he argued.

The report found that traffic is now growing twice as fast as the economy, as people choose to use greater disposable income to become 'hypermobile'.

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