Car trouble

Monday morning should see some fun and games in central London, that’s when congestion charging comes into force. From 7.30a.m. to 6.30 p.m. Monday to Friday any car driving into, out of, or around a zone stretching from Kings Cross/Marylebone Road in the north, south to the Elephant and Castle, from Aldgate in the east, west to around Marble Arch will have to pay £5 per day.

200+ cameras have been installed to record the registration of each vehicle that enters the zone and you have until midnight that day to pay your fiver either in shops, by phone, online or by post. If you haven’t paid they’ll send you an £80 fine in the first instance. People who live in the zone get a 90% discount.

This is all part of London’s blockedheaded Mayor Ken Livingstone’s master plan to sort out transport in the capital. The idea is to get people out of there cars, only to make it work you need an alternative and there are thousands of car drivers who have no alternative because the public transport just isn’t up to it.
Even now the entire Central Line on the Underground, which runs east to west through the heart of London, is shut down indefinitely following a crash in January, it could be months before it runs again.

Since Livingstone took office he’s messed about with the timings on traffic signals and allowed roads to be dug up all over the place, he’ll change this when the charge kicks in and claim its a great success that has made traffic flow again. He says he expects to take in £130million a year and will spend it on public transport but you hear the same hollow promises from Blairs government, 87% tax on petrol all supposedly going to improve the roads and now their talking about toll booths on all motorways to pay for the same thing.

By BootsnAll | Permalink

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