Bias not on roads
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AN ESTIMATED £821 million is being spent during the current financial year on road construction and improvements in Great Britain, and £325 million on nationalised surface transport industries, reported Transport Minister William Rodgers, in the Commons last week.
Robin Cook (Labour, Edinburgh Central) commented that the figures showed a continuing bias in favour of road construction rather than public transport.
Mr Rodgers disagreed,"the figures themselves did not represent a valid comparison", he said.
One could argue that the roads carried about four times as much freight and nine times as many passengers, but which was the chicken and which was the egg, which was the horse and which was the cart?
Such comparisons, maintained the Minister, were invidious.