As bus and rail became less and less attractive, people chose to use the car instead, so that congestion and pollution grew. The Government s aim, to be set out in our ten-year Transport Plan, is to give people more choice. This means tackling congestion, more investment, and better public transport. Already, the benefits of new investment are beginning to show through. More investment New investment is delivering better services, attracting more users, and so helping to fund further investment through higher revenue.
Public transport is once again a growth industry.
The decline in bus passengers has been stemmed. And rail use is up dramatically. In many cases transport works best as a partnership between public and private sectors. The same goes for investment. Public money will help lever in larger amounts of private-sector finance, funded over the longer term by the extra revenue from increased levels of use.