The decision to put back the Thameslink 2000 project by another eight years is one of the worst that could have been taken for transport in Sussex.

It symbolises all that is most shambolic about the Government's transport policy.

Money is being poured into public services, particularly health and education, but not other equally vital sectors such as transport and housing.

While few would begrudge cash going to the NHS and schools, it is possible for people to make their own provision through private health care schemes and public schools, which ease the burden on the state.

Unfortunately, when people decide to give up public transport because trains are so unreliable, they take to their cars. This makes matters worse for everyone by causing complete gridlock, from city centres to motorways.

Thameslink was a brilliant and simple concept. By reopening the long-abandoned Snow Hill tunnel in London, it was possible to make a north-south rail connection through London.

The only other one of note was the then little-used West London line passing through Kensington Olympia.

Since its inception, Thameslink has proved hugely popular. From Brighton alone, there are four services an hour off-peak to Bedford through London.

But the service is stifled by bottlenecks at Bermondsey and neighbouring areas of London that restrict the number of trains, make peak-hour operation through London Bridge difficult and slow down services through the capital.

For about half a billion pounds, chicken feed compared with most other major rail projects or anything to do with motorways, the bottleneck can be widened and a proper service provided. Once achieved, Thameslink trains will be able to run almost every two minutes through central London.

The service from Sussex could be made speedier and be extended to link other towns such as Littlehampton, Hove and Eastbourne with more places to the north of London. It could become a viable public transport alternative to using the M25.

There are other rail improvements crying out to be done immediately. One is to electrify the Ashford to Hastings line, on which some of the oldest surviving diesel trains in the UK somehow just about survive. The line needs to be double-tracked all the way.

A missing link also needs to be provided at Polegate so fast trains can run all the way from the Channel Tunnel interchange at Ashford to Brighton and points west. The Lewes to Uckfield line also needs restoring and the outlay on that would be less than widening the parallel A26.

Most of all, and this would really be a big project, there needs to be more capacity on the Brighton main line. Already it is being used almost to capacity. Thameslink would love to run an express train but can't because there is no room.

The line is terribly vulnerable to breakdown while engineering works cause havoc. Another line, or two lines by its side, underground or overground, would do the trick between Brighton and Three Bridges.

It would be costly but it's the sort of project the Government needs to consider to encourage a shift from private to public transport.

It won't happen while this Government or any other in which the pygmy minds of politicians using chauffeured limousines cannot comprehend the need for it is in office.

What hope is there when they cannot even finance a scheme that eventually will have to be called Thameslink 2020?