£6bn to ease jams as road pricing shelved

£6bn to ease jams as road pricing shelved

The government has shelved national road pricing until the middle of the next decade after announcing a £6bn congestion-busting programme, including toll lanes and opening motorway hard shoulders to traffic.

Government sources confirmed that national road pricing is "off the agenda" for the next parliament as it prioritises a quick fix to gridlock. Instead of implementing a pay-as-you-drive scheme, stop-gap measures including hard-shoulder running and car-sharing lanes would be introduced over the next six years.

"For now and over the next decade our priority must be on the things we can do to relieve pressure on the most overcrowded routes," said a government source.

Hard-shoulder running, which opens the emergency lane on motorways to traffic at peak times, would be considered for the M3 and M4 approaches to London, the M4 and M5 around Bristol, and the M3 and M27 around Southampton.

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Motoring organisations warned that hard-shoulder running would be a poor substitute for road widening. "Improving the hard shoulder does not give you the full benefits of widening the road, because the emergency lanes are used during peak periods only," said Edmund King, president of the AA.

The British Chambers of Commerce called for "a bit more creative thinking" from the government.

Environmental groups warned that the scheme would increase traffic. "This is £6bn down the drain. More road space leads to more congestion, more pollution and more CO2. [The money] could have bought us a first-class public transport system, not a future dominated by cars," said Richard George, roads campaigner at Campaign for Better Transport.

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