DRIVERS could be charged for using the M62, which links Manchester with Yorkshire and Merseyside, if new plans get the green light.
The proposals, which include imposing tolls for using specific lanes, limiting lorries to the inside lane and giving tax breaks to employers to pay for staff to use public transport, is expected to be put forward by the Northern Way group, which includes the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
Another proposal suggests more use of "smartcard" electronic tickets. The ideas are part of a submission to the government on future spending. But the plans met with stiff opposition from motoring groups, even though some experts predict that the M62 is so congested it will grind to a halt by 2010.
Edmund King, RAC, executive director, said: "The motorway is already heavily congested and it is the only real route over the Pennines.
"One of the dangers is that if you only have a toll on the M62 and not in the wider corridor, you will get diversions on to unsuitable roads, which will cause chaos and isn't good for the environment."
And a spokesman for the AA said: "If you're going to have charging, you need to have some benefit from it such as an extra lane to ease congestion on what is already an extremely overcrowded route. People won't pay to sit in the same queue.
Nightmare
"It would be nightmare situation if motorists were pushed off the route. There are very few alternatives to this crowded road across the Pennines."
He added: "Unless the road transport network in this region is thought about intelligently, we're going to see damage to the north's economy in the long term."
And shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling said: "Introducing a toll on the M62, which is the only major thoroughfare across the Pennines, without creating extra capacity elsewhere, is potentially disastrous.
"And worryingly, all the train operators along the same route are also very congested. The ensuing chaos could seriously affect the region's economy."
The problem of jams on the M62 has taxed transport experts for decades.
The last Conservative government was condemned for planning an 11-mile M62 relief motorway between Eccles and Whitefield for three years, spending é20m and blighting neighbourhoods before scrapping the plan in 1995.
WHAT do you think of the M62 proposals. Have your say.
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Anything that stops those bloody lorries from overtaking each other and clogging the motorway has to be a good thing - I have to drive up the M6 every day and the number of times I've nearly been wiped out by some pillock in a juggernaut is staggering. If I have to pay for a road where I'm far less likely to get killed, fair enough.
There is only one answer to this problem that is guaranteed to work and that is to double the capacity of the M62 by widening it. They do not need to introduce road user charging to do this because they can use the money that they steal on a daily basis from all drivers with their extortionate fuel duty and road fund licence.
What? You mean we'll have to PAY to get INTO Yorkshire and Merseyside?!? A diabolical liberty. Someone's having a laugh!
its simple ban heavy goods off the m62 until midnight then open the 62 up to heavy goods from 12 midnight till 6am that way it will halve the daily traffic ,and ease the problem .this way maybe these companys in large citys will build holding yards like they do with trains??.or better still take most of the larger loads by train .
Yes, something does need to be done rapidly, but on all motorways. I totally agree with either making the companies, who use lorries go back to using the trains or restricting their road usage from midnight to 6 am. In relation to the M62 Prestwich/Whitefield turn off in 1995 they were put the residents in that area in an awful position and unfortunately many have been left with houses that have greatly depreciated in value as the area which was effected has gone downhill dramatically since that time.
Ace has got a point, but it would require Roll on Roll Off trains for it to be worthwhile for hauliers.
More public transport that is effective, cheap and easy to access will improve the system.
Put an extra tax on petrol to reduce the number of miles driven.
Tax!Tax!Tax!Tax!Tax!
what more charges hmmmmm always thier answer
Di Drinkwater what planet are you living on, totally agree with sandra, i hate going to merseyside or yorkshire at the best of times to be forced to pay to go those places is just one charge too much
What a wonderful idea. Hopefully this plan will reach fruition thus driving the timewasters off the roads who only travel on this motorway to work in their call centres and supermarket employment for example. The motorways of this land need to be free flowing routes for high powered company executives to travel on in our high powered saloons and chauffer driven limousines which are built for comfort and high speed rather than low powered little run-arounds which clutter every lane with equally low powered individuals turning up for a days hole digging or shelf stacking and holding the likes of me up for important business deals and meetings when public transport would serve them more than adequately. If it wasn't for wireless technology my business would be seriously affected as we're stuck in traffic now on Deansgate as we head for an extremely important business lunch.
Richard Everard, Hale Barns, Cheshire
What a baloon?
Motorways wouldn't be half as congested if the overtaking lane hogs would use the inside lane when it is empty.