Transport Crucible

Residents and businesses in Manchester have been asked whether they want to pay a new ‘Congestion Charge’ tax to drive on the public highways they have already paid for – in exchange for massive government ‘investment’ in public transport development. But that is merely in theory. In practice, as the Manchester Evening News points out today, consultation respondents were not asked anything of the sort. In practice they were invited to answer a much better spun but perhaps beguilingly soothing question: “Do you agree with the proposals?” And ‘the proposals’ that were mostly mentioned involve billions of pounds for lovely trams, buses and bicycle tracks. But TC notes that the hugely attractive sounding £2.75bn ‘investment’ carrot for Manchester to accept a new road user tax is via the government’s Transport Innovation Fund (TIF). And, in practice beneath the government’s spin, TIF is really just a clever scheme to ‘encourage’ city burghers to impose Road Pricing or Work Place Parking schemes, and so the huge investment sum is in practice for Manchester simply a funding package for a massive debt that will take thirty years to pay off… Meanwhile, the time has gone for Londoners to ‘have their say’ in consultations about the controversial Western extension of the capital’s Congestion Charging scheme – that the previous Mayor Livingstone imposed despite a massive 75% opposition to the extension plan at the time. TC notes that the new Mayor Johnson has at least made TfL offer a straight choice between keeping the extension or binning it. Go here to see. But TC suggests that the biggest questions to ask for the people of Manchester, London or indeed anywhere that road pricing is being considered are these. Has the London Congestion Charging scheme really reduced traffic congestion to an extent that justifies the extra tax on drivers? And, Who can be trusted to say what effect it will have on most peoples lives in Manchester? So far, the information offered in ‘support’ of consultations by promoters of the Manchester charging scheme and TfL have been met with significant criticism and doubts over claims regarding the actual and likely success of road user charging schemes in deliverring tangibly better transport for most people and goods. All TC will say for now is that TfL themselves admit that congestion is now as bad in London as it was before Congestion Charges were imposed…