Getting from A to B never cost so much!

According to figures released by the Department of Transport and placed in the House of Commons library, the total "expected" maintenance cost in 2008-09 for all websites under its remit is going to be £7,438,994 (give or take 50p).

The winner for the most expensive website is not however the department's main website (which incidentally I think is the best and easiest to navigate of all the departments). That one is expected to cost £730,000 to maintain this year.

No, the most expensive website is Transport Direct. A rather ugly portal site that talks to lots of other sites and gets you information about traffic, bus timetables, rail timetables, airport landing times etc. How much is it expected to cost this year? £4,750,000.

One presumes that when you submit a request to it what really happen is that fires an email off to a large sweatshop of workers who either dial 118 and ask them for the answer or they look through bus timetables manually.