Eight more years too long

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly's insistence yesterday that we won't see a proposal for upgrading the A1 Gateshead and Newcastle Western Bypass until 2009, or the results until 2015, was not new.

But her apparent lack of concern over this delay, and her comment that "incredibly important" improvements to the M1 and M6 are the priorities, demonstrates the woolly thinking in Government over transport investment.

The attitude appears to be one of looking at where the infrastructure is bursting at the seams, and then enlarging it a little bit. A more logical approach would be to examine where investment can make a long term contribution to the UK's economic growth.

Does it make sense to continually make marginal infrastructure improvements in hugely successful areas like the South East in order to squeeze as much out of them as we possibly can? Or does it make more sense to use the same money for exponential improvements in fast-growing regions like the North East with the potential to play an increasingly large role in driving UK plc?

The big problem is that, while the inadequate Western Bypass is clogged up now, by 2016 the North East ought to have an extra 18,000 businesses and 60,000 jobs if the Regional Economic Strategy is to be achieved. These businesses have to go somewhere and their staff have to get there. It would be nice to think there will be a huge shift towards walking, cycling and public transport over that time, and we should of course encourage that. But the reality is that the link between economic growth and car use will not be broken overnight. Therefore, we need to create capacity to allow that to happen.

In the meantime, every day that the A1 is 160% above capacity is a day when the North East, and therefore the UK, grows slightly slower than it would otherwise do so.

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