Drivers could pay up to '1.34 a mile in road charges considered as a replacement for fuel tax, the Government admitted tonight.

In a series of interviews with The Sunday Times, The Observer and The Independent on Sunday, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said change was essential if Britain was to avoid "LA-style gridlock".

Under the proposals, all cars and lorries would have to be fitted with a "black box" which would track their journeys via a satellite system.

A feasibility study carried out last year suggested that charges could range from 2p a mile on rural roads to '1.30 a mile for peak-time journeys on the country's busiest roads and motorways.

Although the system could not be introduced for at least a decade, Mr Darling said decisions would have to be made in the current Parliament on whether to proceed with the scheme.

Pilot

He said he intended to present a bill before the next General Election to establish a pilot project in a large urban area, such as Greater Manchester or the West Midlands within the next five to six years.

"If we don't do anything it's pretty clear to me, when you look at all the trends, we would face complete gridlock," he told The Sunday Times.

"More and more cars will grind to a halt and the generations to come will curse those people of my generation who didn't do anything about it."

Mr Darling - who will set out his thinking in a speech on Thursday to Social Market Foundation - acknowledged that he would need to build a consensus over the course of the next Parliament if the scheme was to win public acceptance.

"We've got to take the British people with us," he said.

He emphasised the the new charges would replace fuel tax - dramatically cutting the price of petrol - and also, possibly, road tax.

"You are certainly not talking about a charge on top of another charge. You can't have both. this would be a completely different concept, a completely different way of doing things," he said.

Although road-pricing schemes operate on some motorways in America and the Australia, Mr Darling said that "nothing on this scale has ever been attempted".

However, with satellite navigation kits now "fitted almost as standard" on top-of-the-range cars, the technology was becoming increasingly widely available.

"In another 10 years I expect every car will be fitted with this equipment. So it makes sense to see whether or not you can't use that to good advantage and give drivers a better deal," he said.

Charging

Environmental group Friends of the Earth today urged Mr Darling to introduce road charging to help cut down pollution.

Their transport spokesman Tony Bosworth said: 'Money raised through any sort of road pricing must be invested in the transport system to improve the alternatives to car use, as cuts in fuel and road tax could lead to more traffic on our roads and more climate change emissions.

'The reality is that road pricing wont be introduced for years - we need action now.'

Revenue

Tony Grayling, assistant director of the Institute for Public Policy Research and a former transport adviser to the government, said: 'The question is what do you do with the revenue you raise from road user charging.

'Some of it will be needed to operate the scheme itself, perhaps 20%, but what do you do with the rest of it?

'Do you use it to reduce motoring taxes, such as vehicle excise duty or fuel duty - which I think the government is mooting - or do you ring fence it for spending on improving the transport system?

Terence Bendixson, secretary of the Independent Transport Commission (ITC) at the University of Southampton, said: 'There could be a poll tax revolt if Alistair Darling fails to deal with these issues in ways that drivers see as fair and reasonable. The ITC has work in hand that is aimed at throwing light on such problems.'

Bert Morris, director of the AA Motoring Trust, said: 'It's feasible, the question is, is it politically acceptable?

'Will people affected think they are better off or worse off? Road pricing on top of existing taxes is not acceptable. There has to be a corresponding reduction in taxes or duties or lower costs on the transport system."

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