The government's £8.4bn boost to local transport schemes yesterday highlighted deepening divisions between John Prescott and his transport minister, Lord Macdonald, after the package revived a string of contentious road schemes once opposed by the deputy prime minister.
Despite the dispersal of more than half the funds to public transport projects - including bus lanes, two new light railways and even cycle paths - environmental groups accused ministers of a policy u-turn, three years after they said public transport should take priority and that new roads should only be built "as a last resort".
Yesterday's package, the first instalment of a 10 year, £180bn public and privately funded transport programme, included £3bn over five years for road maintainance and up to £1bn for 39 roadbuilding schemes, among them 14 bypasses from the overcrowded West Midlands to the Cornish holiday routes.
Mr Prescott argued that "every region is a winner in today's £8.4bn investment boost. This money will make a real difference to everyone, however they travel and wherever they live".
In the face of growing complaints about a "sticking plaster" transport strategy, he insisted the proposals provide "a proper balance between spending on roads and spending on public transport" reversing years of under-investment.
But Bernard Jenkin, the Tory transport spokesman, said investment had fallen since 1997 and that, in the first four years of Labour rule, the government had invested less on transport in total than in any of the previous 18 Conservative years.
"Mr Prescott is pretending to be a generous Santa Claus, but in reality he is Scrooge." Mr Jenkin said Mr Prescott had failed in his 1997 pledge to reduce car journeys. None of his new schemes would even be started by election day.
The Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, Don Foster, said: "The plans will not lead to reduction in road traffic. John Prescott has shot himself in the foot. We are determined to hold him to his promise to reduce the number of journeys by car."
Confined only to England, the plan also angered pro-public transport groups like Transport 2000 which had viewed yesterday's announcement as a test of government's good faith on the environment.
The CBI applauded the package - "business will always judge governments by what they do, rather than what they say" - and offered a welcome to integrated local transport schemes which will "help people get to work and goods to market".
The Council for the Protection of Rural England gave a mixed response - "a jackpot for local transport, but also a tinderbox of controversy over possible new roads."
It prompted backbench critics on both sides to claim that Lord Macdonald, who joined the Prescott team last year, had won the day, with the backing of pro-car elements in the Downing Street policy-making machine.
Even before yesterday's statement, Mr Prescott and his lieutenant, a former shipyard union activist turned media tycoon, appeared to be at cross-purposes over how the government should respond to the crisis on the railways as pressure mounted for a takeover of Railtrack's operations if chaos continued.
With Lord Macdonald strongly opposed to the government taking a strategic stake in the privatised track and station operator, some of the deputy PM's closest advisers are now arguing for radical options to be considered.
These include either giving Railtrack special trust status, to operate as a public-private venture, or creating a rail agencysimilar way to the highways agency, detached from the Whitehall machine. Both options could avoid charges of rail renationalisation, while appealing to a growing number of voters who believe ministers will have to take stronger action to sort out Railtrack.
Although Lord Macdonald's avowedly pro-car stance and direct line to Downing Street has clearly irritated Mr Prescott, insiders at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions where the transport minister is officially a deputy to Mr Prescott, play down talk of a rift.
But they accept that the two are very different personalities, "chalk and cheese". With Blair aides worried about the political fallout from a chaotic Christmas and New Year on the railways, Mr Prescott's chief transport adviser, David Begg, warned yesterday that urgent action would have to be taken against Railtrack if services were still being disrupted by Easter.
Regional round-up
Some of the transport schemes that received funding yesterday:
North-east
Tyne and Wear Centrelink (£26.4m) - dedicated busway connecting MetroCentre with Gateshead and Newcastle; Tyne and Wear (£9.6m) - doubling the track capacity of a section of the Metro network
North-west
Greater Manchester urban traffic control system (£5.5m); Warrington system (£5.1m)
Yorkshire and Humberside
South Yorkshire (Doncaster) A638 bus corridor (£12.1m) million); East Leeds link road (£20.7m) between Leeds inner ring road, Aire Valley employment area and the M1
East Midlands
Derby City (£23.4m) - project combining traffic management and bus priority measures.
West Midlands
Hagley Road bus scheme (£13.6m); West Midlands outer circle bus scheme (£21.3m)
East of England
Southend-on-Sea A13 passengers transport corridor (£14.5m)
South-east
Crawley (£23.9m) bus priority and guided bus scheme to improve journey times
South-west
Plymouth (£8.4m); Salisbury, Wiltshire, package (£13.7m) Four bus park and ride sites, bus priority and cycling measures, pedestrianisation and traffic management
