How much will I pay?
No definite prices have been set. Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester council, has indicated the highest daily charge - for travelling the full length of a heavily-congested "corridor" at peak times in both directions - would be under é6. People travelling in the corridors at non-peak times will be charged less and maybe nothing at all. The charges will be scaled according to how far you drive, where and at what time, with the aim of targeting the most congested roads at peak times.
How will I pay?
One of three ways. A pilot group will have their cars fitted with satellite transmitters, which will allow GMPTE transport bosses to track their use of the corridors. Other regular users will get windscreen-mounted tags, which will be read by special beacons placed at key points along the corridors. Money could then be debited straight from the motorist's account.
Occasional visitors to Greater Manchester could simply buy a day pass in advance, with the price calculated according to when and where they plan to travel. The intention is that eventually everyone would use the satellite systems, but there are issues - transmitters have to fitted under the bonnet by trained mechanics and people have objected on privacy grounds.
Rates will vary according to how people pay and those using the satellite or tag systems will pay less since it will be cheaper for the GMPTE to collect charges.
What if someone tries to cheat the system?
The corridors will be monitored by cameras with licence-plate recognition. There will be fines for those who fail to pay.
Can't I just use rat-runs to get round the charging corridors?
Sir Richard has admitted that might be possible - although the corridors will be wide enough to ensure it would be extremely difficult and take a very long time. The charging corridors could be revised if this proves a problem.
Will motorways be included in the scheme?
The GMPTE is in discussions with the Highways Agency, which runs motorways. Sir Richard had said he believes the motorways should be included, since much of the worst congestion in Greater Manchester is on routes like the M56 and M60.
Will this definitely go ahead?
There are a number of hurdles to clear. First, the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities - basically the 10 councils in the area - have to give their backing in a meeting tomorrow. The plans will then be worked up in detail and submitted as part of a é1bn bid for money from the government's Transport Innovation Fund (TIF). That fund offers cash for public transport improvements to go alongside `ambitious' jam-busting schemes that include road pricing. In Greater Manchester it would help pay for the Metrolink Big Bang and other improvements to buses and trains.
Will we get the TIF money?
The entire TIF pot for congestion-busting schemes is é200m a year. Greater Manchester will be asking for the lion's share. But there are 10 areas bidding for the money, including Tyne and Wear, the East Midlands, and the West Midlands.
The West Midlands bid is likely to be on a similar scale to Greater Manchester's.
What if we don't get the money?
The GMPTA has been clear on this - without the money for major public transport improvements, they will not consider a congestion charge.
So is this the price of Metrolink?
Yes, but the TIF money would pay for a package of public transport improvements including not only Metrolink but also investment in heavy rail - both extra rolling stock and station improvements - and what the GMPTE describe as a `substantial enhancement' of the bus network.
Will it be cheaper if I have an economical car?
Not as things stand, although it is an idea that could yet be introduced when the scheme is worked up in detail.
If Greater Manchester doesn't impose a congestion charge, could the government impose one on us anyway?
Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander has made it clear that charges like the one Greater Manchester is proposing are seen as `pilots' for a possible national road-pricing scheme that could be in place within a decade.
"Unless we're going to face the alternative of US-style gridlock with some of our busiest roads simply becoming car parks then action is necessary," he said only last month.
And a change of government might make no difference. Shadow chancellor George Osborne, the MP for Tatton, has said he is `sympathetic' to road pricing and said the M6 toll road had brought `great benefits' to the West Midlands.
CLICK to see a pdf map of the congestion charge routes.
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I would like to be the first person to wish Tyne and Wear, the East Midlands, and the West Midlands the best of luck in their bid for the money, if Manchester is loses out to them then so be it, they deserve it SO much more.
I don't object to specific major routes like the A34, the Princess Parkway being subject to charging, as long as minor routes are left exempt from charging, which would disperse the traffic more evenly across the area. I seriously object however to the proposal being extended to the M60 however, as I saw the effects of the closure of the Barton Bridge last week, when it took me 2 hours to go barely as many miles. If the M60 is subject to charging it would be a massive own goal, as the whole point of the M60 was to alleviate congestion in the city, discouraging its use would mean going backwards, clogging up other, smaller roads both through the city centre and around the edge as people start to go point to point across manchester rather than going round as they are inclined to now.
I think it's ironic that the congestion charge is now been thought of. Not so long ago, the metro plans extended out to chorlton and to areas around stockport. That was scrapped and so no traffic reduction was achieved. Now we have to pay for it with congestion charges. Personally, the charges won't affect me as i drive out of Manchester to work but i'm almost forced to drive because of the lack of reliable regular public transport that goes from Manchester to Cheshire. Going into Manchester using Public transport is also ridiculous from Withington. Buses are aplenty but the traffic along Oxford Rd is awful. Buses can't get through - where's the bus lane??
Be warned if you think that you can limit these schems to specific roads. We should learn soem international lessons here. When the toll system was introduced in Sydney they cloased a whole range of other roads to make sure the public were forced onto the toll roads. It was an utter cock-up. OK that was becuase the road was a PFI scheme and needed the fee income but in this country, if implemented on major routes there would be a need to block off all other routes to make the system work. In short all those alternative routes you're probably trying to work out after looking at the map just won't be there!
I understand the concept that we must do something about congestion. But I do not fully comprehend the justification. We taxpayers owned the public transport system before it was sold off for private profit. This has resulted in a system which is expensive, dirty, inefficient, crowded and generally unfit for purpose (exept that of making profit). We are now being asked to pay, via a road tax, to subsidise those companies whose greed and lack of foresight planning has left us with no alternative but to use our cars for which we will be taxed to support...... and on and on.... the lunatics have finally taken over the asylum!
What happens if, like me, you live on one of these corridors? Do you get charged for just having your car outside your house?
Since they built the m60 ringroad the traffic in manchester has increased? could it be how they designed it.create the demand before they start to charge ? I would not beleive a word politicians say.
Don't worry - we'll have run out of petrol in a few years time anyway so those that currently clog the roads with cars with 3 empty seats won't be in my way anyhow!
Get a job closer to home and use your legs if it's that much of a problem to you.
Improvement to public transport is essential but this need to be up and running before a congestion charge in introduced. If congestion charging is brought in first then at £6 per day that is going to be the same as asking every worker in Manchester to take a pay cut of approximately £3000 pa of their gross salary (£6 x 5days x 50 weeks plus Tax and NI already paid on earnings = £3000 Gross). A viable alternative must be available first. Even with the Tram from Sale the system is at breaking point in the rush hour already!
How about some cycle routes that are completely separate from the road system? I for one would welcome the opportunity to cycle into work in the city centre from Sale but I am not prepared to risk my life doing it along the A56. Cycle routes would be cheap an easy to build perhaps using routes through existing parks, alongside canals and railways etc. If a cycle route has to go alongside a road then separate the cycle lane from the road with a kerb otherwise people just drive in it anyway. Obviously cycling would be environmentally friendly and its nearly free so we can all be better of financially as well! Not all solutions need to cost us more!
This is just another form of backdoor "Taxation" Motorists are already hammered on tax & now they want to charge yet again for using the public highway that motorists already pay for by the tax disc. Of course no doubt they will be using the "Green" argument to bolster their argument.
I think the idea of the congestion charge seems some what 'out-there'. Have the government given 'reasonable' thought and consideration to the 'end user'?? Currently we are charged over the top for this, that and the other, and to be inflicted with another charge is damn right in-exusable. I provide a viable serive to the community, and for me to have to pay another charge on top of road tax, petrol tax and not to mention car park fees, would mean that I would have to seriously re-think me role within the community; for me there is no other way to get to work in order to help and serve the public, and the state of public transport would mean a half mile walk to the bus stop, and then 3 buses to work, and then another third of a mile walk - i mean getting to work at my normal hour of 8AM would mean leaving home at 6AM, and also at the other end of the day, getting home at 8PM, would inflict a 14 hour day. Is this right and proper in this day and age?
I urge that this proposal not go ahead and the government re-think there idea.
I will resort to driving illegally with no plate, tax, insurance,mot before paying a penny more.
A totally unworkable scheme. If i had to use public transport (dirty, standing room only, very unreliable, expensive) even if it ran exactly to time i would have to get 2 buses and 1 train and walk for over a mile each way to work and back. (I used to do the journey before i got a car) this takes well over 1 and a half hours each way. (car is comfy and takes about 20 mins, door to door) It works in London because they have the infrastructure NO amount of money would make the current public transport in manchester work. This scheme will simply drive businesses out of the manchester area as lower paid employees can no longer afford to get to work. (i know at least 2 people who have said they will quit as it'll simply not be worth them doing their current jobs) last person out of the city please turn off the lights.
I have read the comments people have made about the congestion charge.I agree that it is just another for of tax for the mortorist.One question that has not been asked,What about the disabled people that depend on their cars,I am one of those folks.I have a motability car that I depend on.I am on a fixed amount of money each month and it would leave me broke just to have to pay for one journey. I have a blue badge that I use but will people like myself still have to pay up every day.I would be interested in what other folk think about this issue.
This is a bad idea just another tax on the working man. The councils should fix all the pot holes on our roads.Why do we pay car tax?
Bernard Shaw, HYDE same here mate i think blue badge holders will be exempt from the charge.. so ive been told.
Bernard, I don't wish to sound so cold and uncaring, but as far as the authorities are concerned, you have 3 alternatives: 1) Stay at home. 2) Get yourself on a bus somehow. 3) Pay up and do without something else. I wish I had a better answer. My elderly Mum can't get on buses or trams, so I'll have to pay to visit her or when I pick her up.
One other thing that I may have missed is ... 'Who pays for these transmitters to be fitted to our cars'..?
Know doubt they will be a couple of hundred quid Plus fitting..
So thats Petrol, Parking, Congestion charge and on top of that cost of a transmitter.. !
It makes one's blood boil to think that the government can exploit people so easily, and its the motorist first and foremost.
God help business's in Manchester and surrounding area's within those predicted routes.
Everyone needs to get together and just not bother going into Manchester for just one day and just watch the 'Tumbleweeds' blow down Deansgate.
Because thats the reality!
Since the council(s) have managed to gridlock rusholme anytime of day and now Northenden at rush hour, I have absolutely no faith in anyone within the Council Transport Dept having the ability reducing congestion at all. Wilmslow road is the busiest bus corridor in Europe yet absolutely no-one would chose to take the bus over a car on this route.
Ron, the congestion you're talking about is not due in any way to the Council's ineptitude. It's what they've created. It amazes me that so many people can blame "incompetence" for all this. You're creating more smokescreens for the authorities. They want you to complain about congestion, so they will appear to be the knights in shining armour who are going to fix it - at a price that you're going to pay. It's a glaringly simple jigsaw.
as a private hire driver i would like to know how the charges for congestion will effect me and my customers.as i live and work within the zones.
( C-CHARGE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS).
will it affect us
Answer Boy will it.
Will it cost the ratepayer
Answer Millions
Will it make driving better
Answer Not a bit of difference
How will it help the motorist
Answer It wont really but we will get better wages next year(councillors)
Will it help the enviroment?
Answer Well no not really?
Will it stop polutants?
Answer Well it might do?
Well if it dosnt help the enviroment and dosnt help the traffic problem why are we getting it?
Answer Well we dont really know but londons got it so Why shouldnt we have it? Red ken swears by it ? His wages have gone through the roof since hes been in charge,But i must admit it hasnt changed anything really ??heehheee,Anything london has we can do better??????????????????????????????????MENTAL.
due to the job i do (emergency worker) i was posted to work in manchester - i had no choice. so each day (mon-fri) i drive to work because there are no trams or trains that take me into work from where i live and the bus route would take 2 hours and 3 seperate buses (due to a limited service). at £6 a day it would cost me £120 a month to go to work, i simply cannot afford to do this. this amount is a quarter of my total pay. this is yet another back door tax for which we will see no benefit.
The road charging scheme can't really be compared to the congestion charge in London.
The congestion charge in London only applies to a small area in the centre of London. This is the main business district with very few residents and an area where most people would have no reason to drive as there is ample public transport available.
The proposed road charging scheme in Manchester will affect everyone across the city and in most areas there is no alternative but to drive due to the lack of public transport.
If the charge applied purely to the congested areas in central manchester that may be warranted as other transport methods are available and it may actually cut down road traffic, but to extend it out into the residential suburbs just seems to be a way of catching as many people as possible in the net and increase the money made as people will have no alternative but to carry on using their cars & pay the charge.
Generating revenue but hardly cutting down congestion.