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From
House of Commons Hansard 1st February 2006 Interventions
Mr. Sadiq Khan (Tooting)
(Lab): The hon. Gentleman mentioned
new organisations and bodies that have been set up over the
past few years. Will he join me in congratulating Transport
for London and the Mayor, who have been responsible for a
70,000 reduction in the number of vehicle journeys into
London, thanks to the congestion charge, and a massive
increase of 54 per cent. in bus usage in the past few years?
Chris Grayling: There is no
doubt that some good work has been done on transport in
London by the devolved administration, but the hon.
Gentleman has to bear it in mind that it is easy to do good
work when one has £1 billion extra to spend on it. Many
parts of the country do not enjoy the financial support that
London does; the level of service is rather less
satisfactory than it is in many parts of London.
Mr. Khan:
The hon. Gentleman said that traffic and travel times on the
roads are increasing. Does he accept, however, that London
offers a classic example and that when the Mayor introduced
congestion charges it led not just to fewer cars being used,
and thus less time spent in traffic, but lower emission
rates? Will he join me not just in congratulating the Mayor
of London but in welcoming the introduction of the
congestion charge?
Chris Grayling: The hon.
Gentleman, as a London Member, should be aware that such
matters are devolved. I am interested in holding the
Secretary of State for Transport to account. As the hon.
Gentleman knows, the Mayor of London is responsible for the
congestion charge, not the Secretary of State.
The truth is that things were not meant to be like this. The
Deputy Prime Minister presented a 10-year plan that, he
said, would ease all the congestion in the transport system.
We were promised wholesale change by 2010.
Mr. Khan
: My right hon. Friend talked
about the legacy of the decades of underinvestment. Was he
as surprised as me to hear no mention from the Opposition of
the fact that more than half of our stations are
inaccessible to disabled people—for example, Earlsfield in
my constituency? Can he confirm that there are plans to
invest more than £370 million over the next 10 years on
making those stations accessible to disabled people and, for
example, to young mothers with buggies?
Mr. Darling: We are very aware of
that. The problem is that many of our stations were designed
by the Victorians before access was considered a problem. We
hope to make an announcement on that shortly.
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