* A critical commentary on the Blair government's sustainable transport policy and its implementation. * Firmly rooted in an appreciation of the politics of this controversial field. * Experts contribute up-to-the-minute analyses of the key issues. * Will inform debate over the future of transport policy.

Series Editors’ Preface ix Notes on Contributors x Foreword xiv Preface xviii List of Abbreviations xxii Part I Policy and Politics 1 1 Policy, Politics and Sustainable Transport: The Nature of Labour’s Dilemma 3Iain Docherty 2 Devolution and Sustainable Transport 30Austin Smyth 3 Local Transport Planning under Labour 51Geoff Vigar and Dominic Stead Part II Progress in Policy Implementation 73 4 Roads and Traffic Congestion Policies: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back 75William Walton 5 A Railway Renaissance? 108Jon Shaw and John Farrington 6 Light Rail and the London Underground 135Richard Knowles and Peter White 7 A ‘Thoroughbred’ in the Making? The Bus Industry under Labour 158John Preston 8 Ubiquitous, Everyday Walking and Cycling: The Acid Test of a Sustainable Transport Policy 178Rodney Tolley 9 Air Transport Policy: Reconciling Growth and Sustainability? 198Brian Graham Part III The Future 227 10 Towards a Genuinely Sustainable Transport Agenda for the United Kingdom 229Phil Goodwin Index 245

Comprising contributions from a range of experts, this book offers a critical commentary on the Blair government's sustainable transport policy and its implementation. The volume is divided into three sections. The first section reviews links between sustainability and transport policy, and examines the political realities surrounding the delivery of a sustainable transport agenda. The second focuses on progress in policy implementation, evaluating the extent to which Labour’s own policy goals have been achieved. The final section looks at the likely trajectory of sustainable transport policy in the UK until 2010. The book includes a Foreword by David Begg, Chair of the Commission for Integrated Transport. Firmly rooted within an appreciation of the politics of transport, this book will make a valuable contribution to debates about future policy.

"should be on every consultant’s, politician’s and planner’s desk and in the library of every institution where transport is seriously studied" (Logistic and Transport Focus, March 2004) "This book outlines the political and implementation questions relating to transport policy delivery in the UK. Despite good intentions and a radical policy agenda this book reveals the Labour Government has failed to reduce the need to travel and to improve travel choice. Society has become more car dependent, levels of congestion and unreliability have increased, and the goal of sustainable transport has disappeared. The contributors to this book systematically document and assess the record of the Government on transport over the last six years." --David Banister, University College London "This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in UK transport policy. It debunks, in forensic detail, the myth that the government has a coherent strategy for transport." --Christian Wolmar, author of Broke Rails – How Privatisation Wrecked Britain’s Railways "This book is valuable not only to transport geographers and the growing literature on sustainable transport, but to anyone interested in how government promises fail to come to fruition." (The Geographical Journal)