When Blair came to office he told us that Labour were going to reduce the number of car journeys, partly as a means of meeting targets for global warming and improving the environment, then promptly handed the keys to the Department of Transport to John Prescott to make sure that it wouldn’t happen. On 6 June 1997 Prescott said: "I will have failed if in five years time there are not... far fewer journeys by car. It's a tall order but I urge you to hold me to it."
By June 2002, car journeys had risen by 7%.
During this five year period, while on his way to the Labour Party Conference to give a speech about public transport, Prescott was chauffeured 250 yards from his hotel to the conference venue.
As part of Prescott’s Integrated Transport Policy, road charging (debates on which led to the London Congestion Charge) coupled with increased and improved public transport was supposed to price motorists of the road, reduce the number of journeys made by car and get the public more reliant on buses and trains.
Instead, we have seen increased costs for rail users, a railway that seems to be becoming more and more unsafe as the years progress, and a nation increasingly unwilling to give up their cars despite increased road tolls, fuel tax and “Safety Camera” fines.
Did we ever expect John Prescott to do something for his money?
BBC2's program “Are We Nearly There Yet” (broadcast on the 6/3/06) commented 'After the complete collapse of the Government’s 10 year Transport Program they never had any tangible ideas to take its place'. They further added that Government’s ability to govern should be judged upon the effectiveness of their transport program as this is the one program with a relatively flat playing field without outside influencers i.e. it is not dependant upon Social factors etc. So this looks very much like another Blair disaster, or should I imagine a co-ordinated public transport scheme that is inexpensive, efficient and environmentally friendly.
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