Innovative solutions are well and good, but the underlying problem is funding. The government's approach has been to encourage the private sector to back new transport schemes. But private investors demand high rates of return, and if faced with the sort of restrictive operational obligations that satisfy all users of public transport, may choose to invest their money elsewhere. Labour have opted for a mix of private and public funding, but may be asking too much of private investors when asking them to back networks that offer little prospect of return. Nor will technology be the palliative that many politicians are hope it will be.
Technological solutions require research and development funding and a consensus on standards.
The government's recent green paper is full of exciting ideas but concedes that funding is a problem. The report points out that given the state of current research a road pricing scheme for London could not be implemented for at least ten years. In short, an incumbent government can only really hope to deliver an integrated transport infrastructure if it is prepared to raise taxes. And that is one thing that the two main parties at least are not prepared to do. The Economist Cast your vote in the Transport Poll.