Councils are to be given incentives to introduce congestion charging under a raft of measures to be detailed by the transport secretary today.

Alistair Darling is expected to welcome a report which proposes the introduction of widespread road user charging.

Darling is also likely to give the green light to the £10 billion Crossrail project - with the government taking what the FT describes will be a "hands-on" role in the project.

But he will effectively rip up John Prescott's 10-year plan by announcing he is abandoning the target for attracting passengers onto the rail network.

A leaked report from the think-tank Catalyst argues that renationalisation is the only way to relieve the railways of a £3 billion overspend.