Motorway tolls due by 1998
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Juliet Parish • Truck operators can expect to start paying for using the nation's 3,210km motorway network within just four years.
Transport Secretary John MacGregor is considering charging motorway users a premium rate at peak hours.
The Department of Transport had planned to introduce motorway tolls by 2000, but MacGregor has told a meeting of 250 toll equipment suppliers that he expects the collection systems to be ready by January 1996 with legislation to introduce tolls by 1998.
The DOT cannot confirm how much of the motorway network will be tolled in 1998. And it can only point to the Green Paper on motorway tolls to give an indication of the prices hauliers can expect to pay: the Paper suggests truck charges of up to 4.5p per mile.
The Government plans to start testing the toll equipment next March. It has ruled out toll booths as impractical and wants to introduce electronic technology advanced enough to be able to warn drivers away from congested areas: "Britain is setting out to achieve something that has been realised nowhere else—a fully electronic tolling system on some 2,000 miles of motorway," says MacGregor.