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Sorry darling, we're stuck in traffic ...
29 May 2002
New Transport Secretary Alistair Darling’s future will depend on getting backing from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for major new Government spending on public transport. In particular the Government will need to reinstate road traffic reduction targets, and show how the cost of using public transport will be cut relative to the cost of using cars (a key finding of the Transport Select Committee report published last weekend).
FOE Director Charles Secrett said:
“So another ambitious politician is strapped into the hot seat that is the transport department.
Mr Darling’s political future will depend on whether he can persuade the Chancellor and the Prime Minister to spend more Government money on public transport, cycling and walking.
Britain’s crisis of congestion and traffic pollution can only be solved if fewer journeys are made by car. The Government should never have abandoned the principle of road traffic reduction targets. They must be brought back at once. Mr Darling should also spell out how the cost of using public transport will now be cut relative to the cost of motoring, as the Transport Select Committee has rightly demanded.”
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jun 2008
