Archived press release

Five years on: transport policy fails the prescott test

6 June 2002

Five years to the day since John Prescott’s pledge to reduce traffic levels, Government transport policy has failed its own test, according to Friends of the Earth.

On 6th June 1997 John Prescott said “I will have failed if in five years time there are not many more people using public transport and far fewer journeys by car. It=s a tall order, but I urge you to hold me to it" [1].

More people are using public transport now than five years ago, but road traffic levels have also risen substantially.

• Rail: number of journeys up 25% [2]
• Light rail: number of journeys up 36% [3]
• Bus: number of journeys unchanged [4]
• Roads: volume of car traffic up 7% [5]

Friends of the Earth’s Transport Campaigner Tony Bosworth said:

“By its own test, Government transport policy has failed. More traffic on the roads is causing ore congestion, more pollution and more misery. The policy has been wrong, the investment has been inadequate and the Government has run scared of upsetting motorists. That has left transport in the crisis it currently faces”.

“John Prescott’s pledge still sums up the key challenge facing Alistair Darling: how to get people to use their cars less? The review of the Government’s transport plan is due next month. Mr Darling must take this immediate opportunity to change the failed policies of his predecessors”.

Notes

[1] John Prescott was quoted in the Guardian on 6th June 1997

[2]

1997/98 Quarter 1 includes June 1997 when the statement was made
2001/02 Quarter 3 is the most recent data available (for October to December 2001)

Source of data: Strategic Rail Authority ‘National Rail Trends 3’

[3]

Source of data: DTLR ‘A Bulletin of Public Transport Statistics: 2001 Edition’

[4]

Intervening years included to show that journey numbers have fallen and are rising again. Figures for 2002 are likely to show a further increase, maybe back to level of 1996/97, but very unlikely to be ‘many more’.

Source of data: DTLR ‘A Bulletin of Public Transport Statistics: 2001 Edition’

[5]

Source of data: DTLR ‘Traffic in Great Britain’

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust