M25: a close call?
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• Some junctions on the M25 motorway could be closed in the quest to reduce congestion, the Transport ministry's top civil servant Sir Alan Bailey told MPs this week.
When questioned at a Commons Public Accounts Committee hearing into a highly critical National Audit Office (NAO) report on road planning, Sir Alan said he could not rule out junction closures on the M25 and also admitted that the Dip had made serious mistakes in traffic forecasting.
Junction closures would be a short-sighted answer to the congestion problem, argues Freight Transport Association director Richard Turner. "Permanent closure of any junction would be a retrograde step. The motorway is industry's artery and cutting off the M25 would be like cutting off an arm," he says.
Turner prefers the traffic management option now being studied in the Midlands on the M6 by which vehicles are held off the motorway by means of electronic signals at times of very heavy congestion.
Distribution companies could face problems if the closures were carried out, says NCCS marketing director David Buck. "It would not solve the problem, which really requires a more drastic solution. New road links between towns like Hounslow and Staines should be improved, or a cheap rail link set up, in order to lure short-trip motorists away from the M25," he says. "Junction closures would mean re-routing vehicles and the extra costs involved would eventually be passed on to the consumer."
Buck's point is backed up by Richard Diment of the British Roads Federation. "As traffic is diverted off the M25, what will happen to the local road networks around it?" he asks. "I think it would have appalling environmental and traffic consequences." Buck and Diment believe the DTp is putting the cart before the horse if it thinks it can shut off M25 junctions before it has up-graded the transport infrastructure around them.
Questions on the M25 arose after the NAO named it among 40 sections of road, costing 2546 million, where traffic flows are far higher than estimated — 161% higher on one section of the M25. The Department's own figures confirm that 16 stretches of the M25 (junctions 6-13, 15-19 and 2328) are carrying more than the 79,000 daily vehicle flow they were designed to cope with.
Sir Alan said the spectacular traffic flow planning errors were due to inaccurate general economic forecasts.