Sitting squarely on the fence over tunnel payment changes
For 50-odd years now the Tyne Tunnel has been an unlovely, albeit necessary and unaltered fact of life for many of us. But changes are ahead.
From Monday, November 8, no-one will pay tolls on the spot.
Motorists will roll through and pre-pay, or pay later online. This has caused concern. To use an awful phrase, not everyone is tech-savvy.
But ask yourself; how many drivers do you know who can’t use the internet, or get someone to use it for them? For me the honest answer is nil.
Even if such people do exist, why should everyone else be forced to form a traffic jam while this tiny minority are rummaging for £1.90 worth of coins?
Daan saaf, the Dartford Tunnel has successfully operated this way since 2014 and Tyne Tunnel bosses claim it will save 1,944 hours of queuing each week.
Here begins the counterargument.
This figure is made less spectacular on Tyne Tunnel’s own website, which states that in September the average wait at the tunnels due to queuing was just 33 seconds. In July it was nine seconds, with northbound traffic delayed by an average of zero.
They also claim that removing the toll plazas (as they are known to make them sound exotic) will lead to a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions.
We would be interested to hear some elaboration on this figure.
The new system will give motorists without “season tickets” the opportunity to pay by midnight the following day; or risk a fine.
Interesting. Like putting the bin out, paying the toll is exactly the sort of thing the average punter will forget to do. Tunnel bigwigs could extend the payby period past midnight the next day, but we suspect they won’t.
Latest accounts for the year ended March 31, 2020 show income generated from Dartford was £209 million, of which £73 million was from fines.
Dartford is used around 50 million times a year, the Tyne Tunnel about 15 million, so make your own estimates as to the income from fines after November 8.
Quicker and cleaner sounds good, but I am heroically sitting squarely on the fence on this one.