The government's own transport advisor has savaged its 10-year plan.

The Commission for Integrated Transport has claimed the pledges unveiled by then-transport secretary John Prescott are "over-promised" and "under-delivering".

Just days after the prime minister distanced himself from targets, the commission warned ministers they are set to miss five key pledges including reducing congestion and increasing bus passenger numbers.

Embarrassingly the report, released on Monday, also warned that Whitehall departments are "not always pulling in the same direction".

Commission chairman Professor David Begg warned that to beat congestion the government will have to seriously consider road charging schemes being introduced across Britain by 2015.

"We have some real progress from government in the past few years in policy development and resourcing," he said.

"But there have been some real problems too. For example we have seen stronger than expected traffic growth, slippage in delivery timescales, a growing gap between public transport fares and motoring costs, a deterioration in rail performance and slow progress on congestion charging."

"We have to question, therefore, whether some of the government's targets can be met. In the circumstances it is right that the government is undertaking a review of its transport plan."

He also called for Gordon Brown to ditch the freeze on petrol tax which had been in place since the infamous fuel protests of September 2000.

"All this takes us back to the fact that we need a form of national charging. I would not want the government to promise something that can't be delivered and there are some key issues to be addressed," said Professor Begg.

"I think the government would be wrong in future years to continue to freeze fuel duty increases. The chancellor should consider increasing fuel duty in future budgets."

"The need to reduce car dependency and improve public transport is as relevant today as it ever was when the Ten Year Plan was first published," he concluded.

The Liberal Democrats said that the government's plan for transport was now "in tatters". "The report from the CfIT hammers the final nail into its coffin," said spokesman Don Foster.

"Alistair Darling must get to grips with the remorseless rise in road congestion, which is costing British businesses £20 billion per year," he added.

"Increasing fuel taxes hits all motorists, even those with no public transport alternative. Road pricing and congestion charging - with the money ring-fenced for better public transport - must be the way forward.

"With the price of public transport ever higher and the cost of motoring falling, the transport secretary can no longer keep his head below the parapet. He must take action to create safe reliable and affordable public transport system."