Roads announcement ­ FTA says must be only the beginning
‘Roads improvements are undeniable, inevitable and critically urgent. Lets get on with it.’
10 December 2002

The Freight Transport Association, with 11,000 members operating over 200,000 goods vehicles, has welcomed today’s announcements from the government regarding roads building and other transport measures. FTA says that the £2billion spending plan is a welcome and positive move but has to be seen as modest against the commitments made in the ten year transport plan and in terms of the projected traffic growth.

FTA Chief Executive Richard Turner says ‘Improvements stemming from all five multi-modal studies announced today are welcome, in particular the improvements on M6 and M1 which are key trade routes for UK industry, but also for the A303, A1 and A453.

‘Everybody’s current experience of both the road and rail network is of congestion and unreliability. In its ten-year plan the government promised industry that it would improve transport operations but this promise has been locked up in 22 long-term regional studies for the last two years. We cannot fiddle around with our transport problems for any longer. Decisions are needed now because it takes six to eight years to build anything and our problem is here and now.’

FTA says that the priority for industry, on both road and rail, is reliability. Industry has, and will be, heavily investing in its own systems which are in turn dependent for their success on the government delivering its ten year transport plan promises. Richard Turner said ‘Industry must have confidence that government actions will deliver an infrastructure capable of sustaining efficient transport operations in what is the fourth largest economy in the world. Our 21st century economy is entitled to a 21st century transport infrastructure.’

Dismissing criticism from the environmental lobby Mr Turner said ‘The multi-modal studies have already carried out the pro or anti environmental debate. We must not be distracted from the absolutely vital need for making roads improvements by debating it all over again now that the work is about to begin. We need an urgent start on work from today’s announcements and the government should also bring forward positive plans on the other multi-modal studies awaiting decision.

‘Roads improvements are undeniable, inevitable and critically urgent. Lets get on with it.’

Last updated: Wed Jul 21 14:20:09 2004