Come the end of October, the bad news will have landed. We will know where the new government plans to wield its axe over UK public spending. The feeling is that transport will be hit harder than most.
While lobbying isn't likely to change many minds, it isn't a good idea for people in the sector to be so resigned to cuts that they sit on their hands. Now is as good a time as any to make the case for sustained investment in transport, if only to hammer home the message that it is madness to slash and burn regardless.
This call to arms is prompted by a recent item in a newsletter from the government-sponsored Transport Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), which must itself be under threat. The article reminds us that the House of Commons Transport Select Committee plans to hold an inquiry into "Transport and the economy".
The Select Committee appears to be looking for updated thinking on the 2006 Eddington Report. The MPs tell us that Eddington identified as priorities for investment "reducing congestion in urban areas, on key inter-urban corridors and at key international gateways (major ports and airports)". The committee says that it "will inquire into whether conditions have materially changed since Sir Rod's report and what the priorities should now be, in order to deliver growth, both nationally and regionally".
One factor that has become even more important since Eddington did his work is climate change. This does not appear in the questions that the MPs suggest where contributors "may wish to focus". (The committee has set Thursday 23 September as the closing date for submissions of written evidence.) 'Green transport' is, though, one of the few areas where the government still has its wallet, if not open, at least slightly ajar.
Last week, the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, made an exception to the embargo on spending when he confirmed that from January 2011 "motorists will receive up to £5,000 towards purchase of an ultra-low carbon car".
Simply stating, as Hammond does in the press release on electric cars, that "We are sending a clear signal that Britain is open for business and that we are committed to greening our economy" is limp. The idea that the £43 million that the government has set aside up to the end of March 2012 "will ensure that the UK is a world leader in low emission vehicles" lacks credibility. As I pointed out in a recent comment, the International Energy Agency's roadmap for electric vehicles shows that it will take a lot more than the 10,000 vehicles or so that this would shepherd in onto the roads.
When Hammond appeared before the Select Committee on 26 July, there were several references to carbon emissions. He told the MPs that "a measure of success for the Transport Department will be demonstrating that there is nothing incompatible between … supporting economic growth and supporting the 2020 carbon reduction objectives".
The MPs really must put more emphasis on 'green transport' than they appear to in their invitation to submit evidence to the inquiry. After all, the spending review will be done and dusted before the committee delivers it views. Its report should lay the foundations for a future when, with luck, the government's allergy to spending money has diminished.
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