Railroading
Page 6
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BRITISH RAIL is to finance a study into the feasibility of turning some stretches of rail tracks into roads to ease traffic congestion in some parts of Greater London. But any conversions would probably be financed by road tolls.
The £50,000 study will concentrate mainly on rail tracks in the Greater London Council area and BR is hoping that the study will come out against all ideas of rail road conversions.
But if rail-road conversion proves the best option, a BR spokesman said it would not back down. Permission for the conversion would have to be obtained from the Department of Transport, and this could take some time, he said.
The study is due out by the end of the year, but will not be a full technical appraisal of feasibility or costs.
The British Road Federation has welcomed the proposed study but is disappointed with the idea of levying tolls on the converted roads. Andrew Street, BRF economist, told CM: "The roads will obviously have to be financed somehow, but we are not in favour of tolls as they are a hindrance to drivers."
A better solution to financing the roads would be to borrow money from private investors and pay them back through royalties on the amount of traffic using those particular roads.