The Government is urged to change its ways by providing the cash needed to create a first-class rail system and to stop expecting too much from the private sector.

The verdict comes from the House of Commons transport committee which has just completed a review of the Government’s 10-year transport plan. In its report published on 24 May 2002, the cross-party committee of 17 MPs led by Crewe MP Gwyneth Dunwoody says it is also worried by the lack of clarity surrounding the financing of rail improvements.

The split between rolling stock, maintenance and renewals and new investment remains fuzzy and the industry is far behind schedule in meeting 10-Year Plan objectives.

The Strategic Rail Authority is urged to publish a business plan urgently because the lack of a detailed implementation plan is a major barrier to improving the railways.

The committee agrees with Railfuture that not enough private sector funding will be available for infrastructure projects.

It casts doubt on the SRA’s confidence that a target of 50% passenger growth is possible.

The SRA told the committee that several projects expected to deliver through the 10-Year Plan will not now be possible without new resources.

The committee also points out how the Government has undermined rail by allowing motoring costs to fall while, among other things, allowing train operators to increase rail fares.

It blames the Government for not setting targets to reduce road traffic and says the 10-Year Plan fails to take account of the tremendous impact it has on everyone’s quality of life and safety.

Instead of making public transport cheaper, the Government’s 10-Year Plan makes it likely to be increasingly expensive.

The committee says: “If it is unacceptable to impose very significant costs on motoring, this argument should also hold for public transport users.

“The 10-Year Plan is undermined by the Government’s failure to tackle the deteriorating relative costs of public and private transport.

” The Government is urged to face up to the difficult policy decisions needed to re-balance the cost of private and public transport. One of the Government’s main failures has been only to talk about congestion charging while doing little.

The Government’s multi-modal studies are also criticised for promoting car use instead of giving priority to shifting “patterns of behaviour”.