Byers' transport plans are a shambles, say MPs

Stephen Byers launched a desperate fightback last night after a damning report by MPs left his ten-year transport strategy in tatters.

The Labour-dominated Transport Committee said the £180billion blueprint unveiled two years ago was 'incoherent', 'incomprehensible' and failing massively on almost every front.

Mr Byers last night let it be known through his aides that he was not being complacent about the plan.

The Transport Secretary, they said, would be publishing within the next two months a revamped version of the original blueprint.

It was already known that the plan was to undergo a review. But the fact that the Minister is putting a firm deadline on the shake-up indicated how seriously he took the committee's criticisms.

The document, one of the most scathing ever produced by a Parliamentary body, said the ambitious programme designed to end road gridlock and rebuild the railways was vague, confused, ill-balanced and poor value for money.

It declared that, far from easing road congestion, the plans will perversely encourage more car journeys and create worse jams. Train passengers face more danger as Ministers pay 'lip service' to safety.

It poured scorn on the Prime Minister's decision to draft in former BBC director-general Lord Birt to advise on transport policy.

'Blue skies thinking from casual enthusiasts such as Lord Birt is no substitute for a considered analysis of the impacts of future policies that the Government has hitherto been reluctant to consider,' it declared.

John Prescott, who launched the original plan promising to end 'decades of under-investment' on roads, railways and other projects, was accused of vastly exaggerating what he could achieve.

The report said the revival of the crumbling rail network was under threat from a cash crisis because Ministers were woefully 'over-optimistic' about being able to secure the £34billion they need from private investors in the City.

A defiant but clearly rattled Mr Byers hit back yesterday in a BBC interview, dismissing the criticisms as 'premature' and based on a 'misunderstanding' of the plan.

He insisted that the blueprint was merely a 'framework' which set targets for various agencies to meet.

'It is an investment programme but the details are dealt with by other bodies and other organisations,' he told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

'The criticism made by the select committee that the ten-year plan does not contain a detailed work programme is a misunderstanding about the purpose of the ten-year plan.

'We are only just over a year into the ten-year plan. It really is a bit premature to say the ten-year plan is going to be a failure.'

He dismissed the committee's claim that he was afraid of taking tough action for fear of making an enemy of the motorist. 'The reality is that cars will remain the mode of travel for most journeys for the foreseeable future,' he said.

'It would be a mistake to ignore the fact that 80 per cent of journeys are made by people in their cars.'

He said what was needed was a better public transport system, so motorists would then have a real choice.

Tory transport spokesman Theresa May demanded his resignation. 'The report confirms what anyone who travels on our roads or rail network already knows - that Labour are failing to deliver on any of their promises,' she said.

Mr Byers rejected the demand saying: 'I am looking forward, with the Prime Minister's permission, to doing this job. It is his decision in the end, but I began the process of this ten-year plan and I want to carry it through.'

The transport committee is chaired by outspoken Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody. Party whips

loathe and fear her so much they tried to oust her from the influential post before Christmas, but she was saved by a backbench rebellion.

Yesterday she bluntly warned the Government: 'They must do better.'

Miss Dunwoody is a transport expert and Mr Byers's suggestion that she had 'misunderstood' his plans provoked ridicule among Labour MPs last night.

The committee's report said the Government had failed shamefully to deliver on its much-hyped pledges because its so-called strategy is 'a wish list rather than a plan', containing many 'aspirations' but few details.

So shoddy is the planning that 'it is impossible to tell whether the plan is on target', said the report.