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15/02/2007
Department of Transport fails to meet targets
MPs have damned the Department for Transport saying that ministers are failing to hit their own targets to improve roads, trains and buses and lack a clear strategy for the next five years.
The report claimed five of seven Department of Transport objectives have failed, including targets to ease congestion, improve air quality and encourage more people to use public transport.
Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, Chairman of the Commons Transport Committee, said it was a "terrible picture of failure".
"The department's only successes are against road safety and rail puntuality targets. And I imagine that most rail users would be surprised to hear their experiences described as the pinnacle of the department's annual achievements, while success against the road casualty targets is subdued by the daily toll of death and injury."
The department is on course to meet only two targets despite spending £13.5 billion in 2005-06.
Ms Dunwoody continued: "The department has not presented any evidence to convince us that the next five years will bring a radical change in performance. The DfT lacks a clear strategy of what it wants to achieve. Without this vision, it also lacks a timetable of policies which are necessary to bring improvements."
(CD)
The report claimed five of seven Department of Transport objectives have failed, including targets to ease congestion, improve air quality and encourage more people to use public transport.
Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, Chairman of the Commons Transport Committee, said it was a "terrible picture of failure".
"The department's only successes are against road safety and rail puntuality targets. And I imagine that most rail users would be surprised to hear their experiences described as the pinnacle of the department's annual achievements, while success against the road casualty targets is subdued by the daily toll of death and injury."
The department is on course to meet only two targets despite spending £13.5 billion in 2005-06.
Ms Dunwoody continued: "The department has not presented any evidence to convince us that the next five years will bring a radical change in performance. The DfT lacks a clear strategy of what it wants to achieve. Without this vision, it also lacks a timetable of policies which are necessary to bring improvements."
(CD)
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