SIX-INTO-FOUR LANE CHAOS
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MOST certainly the Freight Transport Association must be applauded for its endeavours to have bridge and tunnel tolls abolished. Indeed, we must all pursue this course with renewed vigour.
The supposed ace card in the Department of Transport's hand relative to the saving which it claims operators gain in time and fuel by using estuarine crossings, certainly warrants giving the argument the horse laugh. It seems that the Government is quite resigned to allow the present chaos to continue with queues building up as the M25 becomes progressively used, because motorists have no effective choice other than to wait and pay up at the toll booths or drive miles into and through congested parts of London streets.
One cannot help posing the question: what of the Orbital Motorway (M25) without the Dartford Tunnel, for which the ratepayers of Essex and Kent were lumbered some years ago?
A Thames crossing over or under the river would have become government responsibility to ensure eventual orbiting of the capital, and this way responsibility would have been a national one without the necessity for tolls and the consequent costs to our industry.
The tunnel came first, by other means, and we now see and experience the results of continuing governmental dalliance. This is no reason why this sixinto-four-lane chaos should be allowed to continue at Dartford. Motorway it is, and as such motorists should be entitled to use it.
Nigel Breeze Southend-on-Sea Essex