Transport was not one of the successes of Tony Blair's first two governments. After the radical reforms by privatisation and deregulation of most of the transport industry under the Tory regimes, the ideology had seemed straightforward to many supporters: to ‘integrate’, to replace new road building with rejuvenated public transport and to re-establish the role of the public sector.

But Blair initially underestimated the complexities, and other policy areas took his attention. He delegated transport to people who did not deliver. As a result, until 2000 transport policy as implemented amounted to a continuation of the Conservatives' policies. In so far as there was any positive control, it remained with the Chancellor and the Treasury, who continued to determine crucial tax rates, rigidly constrained funds for transport operating and capital purposes, fixed the rules for local authority borrowing, promoted private provision and private finance, laid down criteria for value for money and fought for what they saw as essential national transport policy.

Blair was drawn into transport when things went badly wrong: the fuel price protests in 2000, the unresolved dispute over the London Underground public private partnership (PPP) during the 2001 general election, the collapse of Railtrack in 2001, the resignation of Stephen Byers in 2002, and when his wife was caught in a traffic jam. By the end of his second term the Prime Minister had created several personal sources of transport advice.