The provision of an efficient transport system has always been at the core of economic policy of most western governments. They usually see one of their roles as providing or encouraging environmentally sensitive infrastructures within which their economy can flourish. How much money should be spent on providing that system, and how far it should be subsidised can however be a point of discussion. However if domestic firms are uncompetitive internationally because of an inefficient and unreliable home transport system, most economists would argue that central government should subsidise that system in order to make firms competitive overseas and regain any subsidy through increased taxes generated by higher profitability. Under the current government this seems to be an increasingly important part of policy.
Transport is also a sector of the economy that shows almost continuous growth in all areas.
The construction of major new roads and airports presents major planning problems and is often unpopular with local people. Capacity cannot therefore simply increase to meet demand, and this raises interesting economic questions about supply and demand, as well as about the costs to business of an over-congested transport systems. The railways too are seeing a major growth in traffic, with passenger mileage as high now as they were 40 years ago when far fewer people had cars. Like road and air, the traffic cannot continue to grow without an increase in capacity. Some of the line closures in the 1960 s on the grounds of route duplication are now being investigated for reopening to provide the extra capacity needed as rail traffic grows.