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ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER STUDY
Page 3
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New pilot schemes, new studies, new money old, old problems. What are we referring to? The government's announcement this week that a further E7m will be invested in congestion-busting pilots in seven regions.
The studies, we're told, will focus on urban traffic management as a "further step towards long-term national decisions on road pricing".
A modular regional approach might be a more efficient way of developing road pricing schemes, but we need to be cautious about ending up with multiple disparate schemes, involving different technology and different payment bodies. Operators shouldn't have to cope with fresh penalties every time their trucks cross county lines.
Surely by now we have a workable model of city congestion charging a modified version of the London model, perhaps. Wouldn't it be better to find consensus for technology or payment methods before implementing schemes on a regional basis?
Of course, our hesitation is based on the assumption that the schemes won't exempt trucks from any charges that, like London. other cities will penalise those who deliver their essential goods and services.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has promised 218m to investigate the schemes and a further £200m a year to implement them. We welcome this. But the schemes must be simple, workable and coherent. Let's make sure the lessons we've learned and the systems we have are properly used and are not discarded with the changing of the season. And let's ensure that some of the promised funding is spent on securing the future of the road transport business not just on finding ways to tax it further.