Sunday, January 29, 2006
Future C-charge plans to cost Londoners 80p a mile
Transport for London are currently holding trials on black boxes fitted to cars that will allow the Congestion charge to be applied to each mile travelled. Cars fitted with the devices are tracked by orbiting satellites and miles driven will be charged to the owners account, it is believed.
This means, instead of the current £8 fee, drivers will be charged per mile within Greater London and not just Central London, as it now. It is estimated that the proposed change in the charging scheme would generate £3 billion a year, more than 15 times the current Congestion charge. The breakdown of prices throughout London is thought to be:
80p a mile in Central London.
32p a mile in inner London.
16p a mile in outer London.
Further, these charges might vary according to the time of day and the level and direction of travel. Drivers would be set back £137 for the black box devices. As before, Transport for London have estimated an unlikely improvement in congestion of 40% from the new ideas.
The new system could be less than a few years away and is again likely to hit essential drivers the hardest.
How many more costly and limited iterations of the Congestion charge will the Mayor introduce before we question the positive impact they will have? Surely an independent review of such a huge change should take place first? Then again, as we've seen in the past, Ken will simply ignore professional opinion and carry on regardless.
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