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[UK] Toll roads

  • 07-07-2004 12:55am
    #1
    Victor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,647 ✭✭✭✭


    http://home.eircom.net/content/reuters/uNews/3536389?view=Standard#
    Second toll motorway planned
    From:Reuters
    Tuesday, 06 July, 2004

    LONDON (Reuters) - Environmentalists have reacted angrily to government plans for a new toll highway linking Birmingham and Manchester.

    Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announced consultations on a new toll road to relieve stress on the heavily congested M6 motorway between the two cities.

    The highway would link up with the existing "M6 Toll", the country's first, which was opened last December to bypass Birmingham.

    "Given the success of the M6 Toll in improving congestion, I believe that it is now right to look at extending the tolled motorway and building a new Expressway," Darling said on Tuesday.

    Motorists gave the scheme a guarded welcome, but environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE) said the Labour government had reneged on a pledge not to build more roads.

    "We are angry and bitterly disappointed," said FoE's Tony Bosworth. "When it came to power, Labour said that we can't build our way out of congestion. This new toll motorway will encourage more people to drive."

    The Freight Transport Association (FTA) welcomed the scheme, saying congestion was costing industry 20 billion pounds a year.

    "It is crazy that the world's fourth-largest economy wastes billions of pounds and billions of man hours slumbering in motorway congestion," said the FTA's Geoff Dossetter.

    The transport department said the dual-lane scheme would be 10 percent cheaper than widening the existing M6 motorway by one lane in each direction, and, unlike road-widening, would cause no disruption. It might be funded by the private sector.

    The RAC motorists' group said its members would welcome an alternative to the congested M6, but called for a coherent strategy for the future. "What happens next time?" said a spokeswoman. "You can't keep building."


Comments

  • #2
    thejollyrodger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,933 ✭✭✭thejollyrodger


    Having looked at the mess the mosherways are in England I am now in favour of tolls being strategically located on our motorways. As long as they are strategically located and arent as wide spread as say Spain or France.

    Obviously there are people who driving along in their cars with nobody else with them. And there are numerous journeys that could be made on either a bus train or even not at all.

    This whole moterway looks great on a map, but if it doesnt alleviate traffic then its money down the drain. More twin or quad track rail, and buses please :)


  • #3
    Victor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,647 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/3631544?view=Eircomnet
    British nationwide road tolls 'possible in 15 years'
    From:ireland.com
    Tuesday, 20th July, 2004

    A vision of how future drivers might have to pay to use the roads was outlined by the British government today.

    Transport Secretary Alistair Darling published a study today which said a nationwide road pricing scheme would be feasible within 10 to 15 years.

    A toll system was presented as an opportunity for scrapping or reducing existing road taxes.

    Road pricing could be based on time, distance and place and could cut congestion by a half, potentially saving £12 billion sterling a year.

    The study put forward a number of charging scenarios, with motorists paying as little as 1.5 pence a kilometre, or as much as 83.5 pence a kilometre (about 134 pence a mile).

    While acknowledging the time had come to "seriously consider" road pricing, a review of the Government's 10-year transport plan also said that a nationwide system would be "a massive and complex task".

    It would cost a lot - possibly £2 billion to £3 billion a year - to run, it would need a sufficient level of public support and much more would need to be known about local road usage and road users.

    Mr Darling said "a lot more work" needed to be done on road pricing and it would be necessary for ministers to "take the public with them".

    He promised that the Government would not pile one tax on another but that it was vital to tackle congestion.

    Mr Darling said ducking the road pricing issue would be irresponsible - a view echoed by Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said the government "could not simply build its way out of trouble".

    Mr Blair added: "The key is how, not how much, motorists pay for road use. We will do the work necessary to allow the hard decisions to be taken nearer the time."

    PA


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