Measures designed to fleece motorists
I COULD not help feeling sick at the sight of the chief executive of TT2 in your paper smiling as he considered his idea of success after removing the toll booths.
I have still not had a response to my recent request for details of the amount outstanding from the original construction cost of the tunnel. This, according to a report at the time, and still recorded on video on the internet was £200m.
It is reported that 17 million vehicles have passed through the tunnel since the booths were removed. The tunnel was opened over nine years ago and, let us say, if an annual average of 15 million vehicle transits were made we have roughly 140 million crossings. Even if the average fee paid over that time was £1.50 we have £210m. Add to this figure the £13.5m taken in fines we have £223m at least.
These figures are conservative. So why is it supposedly necessary to increase the current fees even more? Even more revealing is the 3.11% of users being fined. This is about 520,000 persons who have been duped one way or another.
This reminds me of the trouble in John Dobson Street in Newcastle and the confusing entry points at the north end of the Tyne Bridge from City Road, let alone turning east when crossing the Swing Bridge when the Quayside market is operating.
One could argue that such travel restrictions relating to the latter are the result of inept traffic planners, but the inevitable conclusion is that all these measures and many others in the region are cynical ways to fleece the motorist.
So far as the tunnel is concerned would it not be fairer to the motorist unaccustomed to the payment system for one booth to be reinstated for them to pay on the spot? This wouldn’t greatly affect traffic flow as I calculate that on current non-payment figures this is less than two per minute.