£8 Congestion charge

[Satch]

Not very long ago Red Ken was saying that the £5 charge would not be increased for maybe 10 years. Now less than 2 years in a £3 hike and a prospect of more Congestion Charging Zones. Why?

You may think this is on sound social & environmental grounds, certainly being sold that way. But the truth is found in the Terms and Conditions of the Bonds to be issued by Transport for London, which they started roadshowing around financial institutions on Monday trying to raise capital for all those expensive projects.

These get to be paid for out of TfL revenues and are not underwritten by Government, so they do not count as part of the Gordon Brown spending spree. But hang on: fares rises are strictly controlled, so what if there is not the huge rise is passenger numbers predicted? Where does the money come from to pay the interest on the bonds and one day repay the borrowings if the Government will not cough up? TfL certainly has no spare cash and that is something institutional investors do not like, so how come these bonds got an "AA" rating?

Answer is the one uncontrolled pricing element TfL has: the Congestion Charge can be raised to any level in order to meet obligations under the Bonds. So the motorist suffers a huge disguised taxation burden to directly fund TfL spending.

If you do not live in London, easy to think "So what?"

Well the so what is that many others in regional and local government are looking at this with great interest, if only as a way to make up the growing shortfalls in funding from central government.

If Ken can get to fund his grand ideas like that so can they. You have been warned.

 

[Dieselman]

If you do not live in London, easy to think "So what?"

Well the so what is that many others in regional and local government are looking at this with great interest, if only as a way to make up the growing shortfalls in funding from central government.

If Ken can get to fund his grand ideas like that so can they. You have been warned.

My local City trialed CC about 5 years before it was introduced in London. We have the slowest traffic speeds outside London and this is being used a lever to introduce CC.

Personally I don't think the amount of traffic is high it's just that the road network is crap, but the real problem is that the traffic lights have been phased to slow down the traffic. This is fact and has been admitted by the City planners.
Apparently it is to discourage people from driving into the City to reduce congestion.

The facts that are being trotted out in Parliament by the stupid fat MP for the City are factually correct but are contrived to bring in CC.

It's disgusts me that the motorist is being deliberately manipulated to become another revenue earner.

 

[scotth_uk]

I live in London and have to use it all the time. I am all for it.

Not too happy with the dihonesty, but happy with the idea.

Only thing I would change is to allow 48 hours post journey to pay. Similar to systems operating around the world.

 

[C240Sport97]

Agree. I was done once for forgetting to pay -- I remembered at 1am in the morning by which time it was too late

They send you a cheap black & white pic of your car (the front plate plus the MB star ) I entered in Tower Bridge and only got 'done' outside Millbank.

The penalty system is unfair and unreasonable. They should at least give people one chance to pay a bit later than normal. If you have a busy day with lots to do, it's easy to forget.

Truth is, central London traffic is more pleasant/predictable during working hours .. it has priced people off the road, and is in my view, capitalism at its purest form

Only thing I would change is to allow 48 hours post journey to pay. Similar to systems operating around the world.

 

[peterchurch]

Hi,

I agree with Scott the charge is a good idea. The only problem was it worked too well... Ken was left with a situation where the scheme does not even come close to breaking even, because lots of people found out that they did not need to drive in and pay the charge. So he has been stuck ever since with the problem of getting the motorists (who were supposed to be an easy target to fund the other schemes!!) to cough up... (thats the bit I don't agree with)

 

[marcos]

The system is still badly flawed and untill it's sorted no one will be happy. I have forgotten to pay twice now and have never recieved anything from them, the vans however always get the charge paid on the day they go in and we have recieved over 100 summons now saying the charge was never paid, we have always managed to prove our innocence but it takes a lot of calls and e-mails to get sorted and I'm fed up with wasting money sorting out their problems. And yes Ken would get a damn good beating if I get my hands on him, smarmy little t**t.