Well it has finally happened. All the rhetoric and all the promised government cash for transport has foundered on a heavy dose of truth. Gus Macdonald - speaking in April this year when presented with the appalling record of Virgin trains and their inflation-busting 10% fares increase - was full of measured, intelligent advice. Virgin customers should travel by car and by plane. This might sound like a bit of jovial frivolity, but every now and then the time is right for a bit of seriousness.

It is after all a very serious matter that we have one of the worst public transport systems in Europe, the highest fares and a dreadful environment for pedestrians and cyclists on the majority of urban streets. If anything our rural areas are worse still, with minimal provision for bikes and pedestrians. This is a serious health problem, a serious climate change problem and a serious matter for all those trying to go about their everyday business in an intelligent way and then being forced back into the car.

Gus has made a big mistake, but we should be grateful for this glimpse into the reality of the high level thinking that goes into this government’s transport policy. A brief round up is instructive:

The abandonment of road traffic reduction targets
Government was effusive in opposition on the need for traffic reduction targets. I still treasure the bulging files of Prescott/Meacher promises. These silly ideas were soon abandoned and now we have no basic target-driven policy on which to hang other policies.

Railway privatisation
Even before railways started killing people it was obvious that we were in trouble. High fares, poor services from the start and a fragmented industry united only in its determination to reward shareholders. Promises to sort this out came to nothing.

Larger lorries
Maximum lorry weights have gone up from 40 to 44 tonnes. No concession has been made to the ways in which this gives a huge free gift to road haulage and disadvantages rail freight nor any concession to the daily havoc and misery caused by large lorries to rural and urban residents alike.

Speed limits and enforcement
The number of speed offences in the UK is at an all time high.Yet even 30mph is too high in urban areas and many villages have traffic at much higher speeds than this. Enforcement is minimal, because the police are not interested in dealing with speeding offences. Zero tolerance is reserved for other things. Speed kills, maims and generates a steady stream of people who are confined to wheel chairs for the rest of their lives.The misery and distress for relatives caught up in an unsympathetic criminal justice system is enormous. Killing people by car attracts hardly any punishment and is regarded as a trivial offence.

Driver behaviour
The majority of driver behaviour is poor. Red light jumping, cutting across pedestrians who have already started to cross a minor road at a junction, parking on pavements and so on.The police aren't interested in this kind of offence. If you doubt this, try reporting a car speeding through a pelican crossing showing red to traffic.There will be no prosecution even in cases where the offence was blatant, with a willing witness.

Integration
Make your own list. Buses don't meet buses, trains don't meet trains (even when they run on time), buses don't meet trains, carrying bikes on buses and trains is a rarity. Carrying bikes on the 09.35 Lancaster-Liverpool Virgin service is banned. Try finding your way from Lancaster or Preston bus station to the railway station on foot, with luggage or young children. Integration is a very bad joke played out at our expense.

Cycling
The government has a cycling strategy which aims to double cycle trips on a 1996 base by 2002.This has failed miserably. It now intends to quadruple cycle trips on a 1996 base by 2012.We will see. Cycling on most roads is dreadful. Even so-called bike routes are often grotty bits of road in the gutter with a white line painted nearby. Doing the tango with a 44 tonne lorry is not for the majority of people and ought not to be part of a safe routes to school strategy.

Walking
Pavements are in a mess and drains are blocked. There is a main crossing in Liverpool controlled by traffic lights but with no pedestrian phase. It is heavily used by people walking to and from the different buildings of Liverpool John Moores University. The response of engineers in these circumstances is to build railings so pedestrians can walk even further. What is so wrong with light-controlled junction having an all red phase (i.e. traffic in all directions is stopped)? This is the only guarantee of safety for pedestrians.

So what has government being doing
All the real things that matter in the above list could have been solved in the first two years of this government's life. They just don't care very much about solving problems. They like the idea of setting up useless advisory bodies like the Commission for Integrated Transport. They like lots of policy documents and consultations, none of which ever amount to a jot of difference in the quality of life for those - unlike government ministers - who spend their time outside cars. They also like spending big money on big projects (i.e. those things that are irrelevant to 90% of our journeys) and certainly irrelevant to the needs of the elderly, children and the poor.

The government is committed to lots of new roads, like the Lancaster Western Bypass (£55 million) which will destroy the Lune Estuary and reduce congestion in the city by 10% if they are very lucky, and the Carlisle Northern Development Route (a bypass, though Carlisle already has a bypass called the M6). The Carlisle road wipes out an otter colony, goes straight across an SSSI, and smashes its way through a Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall. The fort and the wall are part of a World Heritage Site (like Westminster Abbey, the pyramids, Taj Mahal and Stonehenge). This road will reduce traffic in Carlisle by 3%.

The solution?
If government wants me to define integration and provide a targeted, focussed delivery plan I will do it. It will take six months and cost less than one mile of the Lancaster Bypass. Producing real transport integration in the UK - better than Denmark and Switzerland and with the best pedestrian and cycling facilities in the world - will cost:

• the £60 billion set aside in the ten year spending plan for roads.
• the cash set aside for high speed railways (say £ I 0 billion in the next ten years).
• the aviation subsidy, because there is no tax on fuel (i.e. £50 billion in ten years).

 £120 billion for a radical transformation of UK urban and rural life. It's the bargain of the century and no more than the Victorians shelled out to produce a radical transformation of drinking water and sewerage systems.The problem today is a lack of vision, lack of commitment, love of waffle and lack of interest.