Transport plan hits buffers as Darling fails to woo car users to the railways

The Government all but abandoned its 10-year transport plan yesterday after conceding that road congestion and rail performance had been far worse than envisaged.

Launching a progress report on the strategy aimed at persuading Britons to abandon their cars in favour of public transport, Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Transport, admitted rail passengers would have to make do with the present level of provision for some years to come. Train services might not start getting better before 2005, he warned.

In a private meeting earlier Mr Darling "read the riot act" to senior train operators, warning them of dire consequences if performance did not improve more quickly.

A senior source pointed out, however, that Richard Bowker, chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, had previously urged them to cut costs. "We are getting clear messages, but unfortunately they conflict," said the source.

The Government's plan – which came into force in April 2001 – committed ministers to cutting congestion on major roads by 5 per cent by the end of the decade. The report concedes that instead it will rise by between 11 and 20 per cent. Mr Darling told MPs that the report showed "a good start has been made but much more remains to be done".

He added: "Since the plan was published, the scale of the task in front of us has become even more apparent."

Mr Darling said railways would receive about £64bn over the next 10 years. On top of that, roads would get £59bn and local transport plans, including spending on local roads, would also get £59bn.

The report said rail costs had risen and the public funding for rail in 2001-02 was nearly £500m more than originally envisaged in the plan.

On the railways, there was now "a movement away from Railtrack's misjudged strategy of pursuing growth from major enhancement projects without properly understanding the risks".

Mr Darling conceded that current rail timetables "could be placing unrealistic demands on service providers". Achieving the original road congestion-reducing targets "may be even more challenging than was envisaged".

He conceded that local authorities were delaying decisions on bringing in congestion charging until they saw how the scheme worked when it starts in London in February

That meant the original figure of £2.7bn which was expected to be raised for transport schemes from congestion charging plans was now likely to be only about £1.3bn by the end of the decade.

Tony Bosworth, transport campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said the Government's transport strategy was a "shambles". He was critical of the emphasis on road building at the expense of improving public transport.

"Despite promising to cut traffic and get people on to public transport, little has been achieved. Motoring costs have fallen under Labour, while the cost of using buses and trains has risen. On top of this it is building bigger roads that will eventually lead to more traffic and more congestion," he said.

Sue Nicholson, RAC Foundation campaigns head, said: "This is a realistic acceptance by government that it will take longer than 10 years to alter the transport problems of the UK."