With each passing week, the public finances look more and more precarious. For England’s cities, the next decade is likely to be marked by a wide-ranging cutback in Government capital investment, with transport and other infrastructure projects pared back significantly. Despite transport’s role as an enabler of economic growth, it remainslow on Ministers’ priority lists – well behind education, health and defence. Yet public transport infrastructure needs – especially in England’s regional cities – remain significant. A decade of increased spending has not closed the ‘infrastructure gap’faced by cities like Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge, Reading or Bristol. So if cities are to lead the economic recovery over the longer term, new sources of transport investment will be urgently required.