Locally, transport is the most important issue we face in the UK today according to a Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) survey - and the North West is no exception.

We have the most congested roads in Europe; we use our cars more, drive further and spend more time stuck in traffic than anyone else. The RAC Foundation has predicted that without introducing charging in this country we will need to build five times the amount of new roads or raise fuel duty five fold - just to stand still! On the railways, we have a network which is creaking at the seams and which in 15 years time will have reached bursting point.

You don’t have to look far in the North West to see a few examples of our transport problems. Who hasn’t been stuck in motorway gridlock, crawled through city centre traffic or been squeezed like a sardine on a packed commuter train.

Money is being poured into transport on a scale we have not seen for generations so why are we not feeling many of the benefits yet? Well, on the railways it is being poured into getting our fragile infrastructure out of the mess that Railtrack left it in. The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is a case in point. And as for local transport, whilst Government is giving local authorities extra money, a proportion is being siphoned away from transport to prop up education and social services budgets so the full benefits to transport are not being realised.

The North West is in the UK’s economic heartland and served by a comprehensive motorway network, the soon to be rejuvenated West Coast Main Line, the flagship Manchester tram services, two thriving airports and some progressive local authorities and Passenger Transport Executives.

But the region’s economic success adds to its problems. The North West is a long way from some of its core markets and depends on good transport links. Booming economies bring with them more travel. Trans-Pennine road and rail links are at near capacity and parts of the North West are a Mecca for car-borne tourists.

You only have to look back 10 years to see why. In Greater Manchester the number of vehicle kilometres being driven today is 20% up on a decade ago and it’s up 10% or more across most of the North West. With the Government forecasting that motoring costs are going to fall by some 20% over the next 10 years those figures are only going to get worse. You can just imagine the sort of impact that is going to have on the M6, the M60 or the M62 let alone in our towns and cities.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. There are ways to make life a whole lot better. Some of the ideas are radical, they are certainly controversial and they will need some strong political leadership.

We really need to start with an education programme. There is a mistaken belief that we have an absolute right to drive further and further and that the Government must provide the road space for us to do it.

If only life was so simple. Some of the worst congestion is in our city centres where there is no room for extra roads even if we wanted them. And what is the point of new motorways if you cannot get into the towns at the end of them?More