UK: The Queens's Speech- No crumbs for transport.

The Queen's Speech, an occasion when the unfortunate monarch is obliged to dress up in her finest and make her way to place she would probably rather not visit (she tends to be fussy about the company she keeps) and read out "her" government's legislative programme for the next twelve months came as a huge disappointment to anyone who looks towards improvement to transport infrastructure as a way out of the current flatlining economy.

It also came over the same way to anybody interested in a dynamic "Let's do it" programme of building capacity for Britain's future. There was nothing whatever to indicate an exciting vision of a 21st century country.

The planned HS 2 Bill to clear the way for the London to Birmingham first stage of a high speed railway line from London to the midlands, north and ultimately Scotland has been deferred by a year. The only advantage of this is that it may now be possible to add in to it the separate Y shaped extensions to the north east and north west and thereby avoid the need for further legislation later to cover these. The immediate reason for delay was though a failure of courage in the face of Conservative opposition in the string of largely Chiltern constituencies along the line's preferred and most sensible route. The fact that listening too closely to these means ignoring the needs of the midlands, the north and Scotland has not been understood .The party is not strong on things north of Watford and many appear not too clear about where that actually is. The Lib Dems just don't seem too bothered. For many of them transport presents too many conflicts of idealism to be able to cope with. Whether the line is high, low speed or any other speed is irrelevant. After 130 or so years of relying on the Victorian's work and removing some of it, notably the last and best (European guage) built Great Central line, the need for new capacity via a new line is urgent and will only worsten with continued political procrastination.

There were no words of comfort either in the speech for any other measures to improve Britain's increasingly sclerotic transport system. The punitive levels of Air Passenger Duty have become too big a contributor to the exchequer to be reversed or abandoned without political screams about favouring the rich above the poor and are set to increase rather than diminish. The review of runway capacity in the South East is to consider anything but the most necessary, most obvious and easiest done building of the 3rd runway at Heathrow. Even Labour, the orginal promoter of the scheme has turned against it and its champion Lord Adonis on returning today to the shadow cabinet has been warned by his masters not to revisit the subject,-as he had in fact very recently done. Maybe the terms of his reinstatement include silence on the matter.

There are no plans to substantially improve the UK's road system either. No new motorways are planned and only tinkering at the fringes with some additional lanes and cheap conversions of hard shoulders into roadway is envisaged. A few bottlenecks here and there may be eased but essentially the policy is for no substantial growth. That is bad news to industry and to depressed coastal towns such as Hastings, Eastbourne, Gt Yarmouth, Skegness and others which are pretty much strangled by being at the end of what in effect are long, low capacity country lanes.

Ports remain largely only just about adequately served by road and rail. There have been recent guage and other enhancements on rail routes from both Southampton and Felixstowe to the midlands but also needed are increases in line capacity including the doubling of approximately 7 miles of track between Felixstowe and Ipswich (no big deal but no plans for it),the electrification of the Barking to Gospel Oak line in north London(thanks to nobody wanting to take responsibility for the cost) and further capacity enhancements for Felixstowe trains west of Ely. The re-doubling of the very restricted Leamington-Coventry link also needs to be brought forward. All are relatively minor in the scheme of railway expenditure but are surrounded by a lack of urgency.

As for getting the nation cycling, until it is accepted that bicycles need lanes entirely separate from roads rather than just a lethal narrow strips marked along the side of them, Britain is not serious about the idea. Improvements tend to be very piecemeal and are hindered when more than one local authority is involved.

Given big picture vision from politicians and planners, a "just do it " approach and freedom from inter departmental and inter local authoritity conflicts and other obstructive feet out and logs across the roads,railways and runways, much could be achieved quite quickly. Unfortunately ,while there is some talk, there is no sign of much action and certainly no sense of urgency and dynamism. The first requirement is strong political leadership and direction. The spring Budget and the Queens Speech have given none of this.