Two former transport secretaries have been awarded life peerages - Sir George Young, who held the post in John Major’s government from 1995-1997 and Alistair Darling who was secretary from 2002-2006 under Tony Blair.
In the transport post Darling was most famous for his controversial plans for pay-as-you-go road user charging, which had to be dropped after there was a public outcry including an opposing online petition that garnered more than one million signatories.
The proposals would have employed a satellite tracking system, connected to a black box in every car, that would be used to enforce the toll with prices varying from 2p per mile on quiet roads to £1.34 for motorways at peak times.
He then became better known for his part in rescuing the banks after the 2008 crash as chancellor under prime minister Gordon Brown.
Sir George was the man who privatised Railtrack as Conservative transport secretary, creating the company that controlled Britain's rail infrastructure. However it collapsed in 2001 before being taken over by Network Rail
Railtrack was heavily shaken by the Ladbroke Grove rail crash and later the Hatfield crash, which plunged it into insurmountable debt through compensation payments and the need to invest billions in safety systems and new track.
In a speech defending the privatisation Sir George said: ‘Privatisation was going to transform an industry that looked inwards to the Department of Transport for support into one that looked outwards to its market for custom.
‘It was going to bring into a rather introspective and protected industry successful operators of other transport modes. It was going to reduce the subsidy for running trains, by removing some of the cosy practices that had grown up unchallenged for decades and freeing up the money for other public services. So the policy was not some mad ideological transfer - John Major was a pragmatist with a deep suspicion of ideology.’
He added that starting point was ‘underlined by my experience of getting money for transport when the railways were in the public sector’, requests he claimed were always refused.
The sixth baronet of his family, he is known as the ‘bicycling baronet’ after cycling his seven-mile commute to Westminster followed by his family's appearance on a British Rail poster promoting the transport of bikes by train.
