Severn Bridge Toll to be Scrapped

[BlueJazz]

mybrainhurts said:

Don't panic, people, all is well....

Tolls are to be introduced on the Runcorn bridge....

Halleluja, we are saved....

Wish the Mersey tunnel was toll free!

[jmorgan]

Tankrizzo said:

jmorgan said:

No relief road around Newport, the traffic could be backing up a bit further. Interesting times, hope they finish the dualling around the heads of the valleys soon. Think I will be using a different way into wales when I can.

Distributor from the Coldra, past Spytty and out by Tredegar Park always works for me when the tunnels are rammed.

Tried it twice. Never again but I understand that is what the works are there for at the moment.

[Super Slo Mo]

Hayek said:

Thought speed limits weren't enforced on the M6 toll.

When the A1M up to Peterborough was completed a guy I knew (who admittedly had rep for making st up) used to say you could go a lot quicker on it without being done because the govt were using it to trial raising motorway speed limits.

I generally find the M40 is where everyone seems to ignore any speed limits, anyone else?

The M40 is fast, but it's probably best not to draw too much attention to it in forums if you want it to stay that way.

The M6 toll has the limits enforced and always has, there is a police presence on it from time to time.

[Bristol spark]

defblade said:

Bristol spark said:

ZOLLAR said:

Terrible Terrible news......

for anyone that has paid at the tolls the best part is flooring it along the big wide section that follows, no doubt that'll be taken away

This, one of the few places tou can utalise a cars accelleration from a standstill

Be careful. It's easy to exceed the heavily monitored 50 limit well before the NSL signs if you've got a reasonably powerful car

I only ever tend to use the old (chepstow) bridge, which ive never seen enforcement on

[pss1]

BlueJazz said:

Wish the Mersey tunnel was toll free!

This 100%! But the workshy scouse communists who run Merseytavel will just go on strike if their hard-working toll collecting comrades are threatened with the boot. Hell, even machines that aren't from the 1970s that accept cards or even... contactless payment would be a step forward. Don't even get me started on the so-called Fast-Tag, that's the size of a Betamax.

£1.70 each way to get to and from Liverpool. Hardly a ticket to paradise, is it?

....aaaand breathe.

[Sheepshanks]

Super Slo Mo said:

The M6 toll has the limits enforced and always has, there is a police presence on it from time to time.

I use the M6 Toll a couple of times per month and without fail I used to see an un-marked car (usually a Volvo S60) having pulled someone over every trip.

I have to say that I haven't seen such a thing for some time now and I did hear they'd cut back on motorway policing in the Midlands. I know they've cut back elsewhere - on my NW to SE journeys it's been rare to see a marked car for years.

[Sheepshanks]

pss1 said:

But the workshy scouse communists who run Merseytavel will just go on strike if their hard-working toll collecting comrades are threatened with the boot.

The staff don't collect the tolls for the Mersey tunnel - they just give change. You can guess why that is.

Threw me when I used it as one-off a couple of years ago - I sat there waiting for the barrier to go up and wondered why the guy was screaming at me!

[Countdown]

I'm in 2 minds about this...

On the one hand I generally prefer the principle of "Users pay themselves" rather than the cost being socialised, via general taxation.

OTOH you could argue that infrastructure is a social good, it's far more efficient for the Govt to pay (and collect via general taxation), it possibly generates more in revenue from increased economic performance.....

[Sheepshanks]

Not that I use it much, but it's a bit of a pain that they're going to start charging for crossing the Runcorn bridge (both the existing and new) when the new ones opens soon.

[spaximus]

This will have a big effect on the South Wales area. Cheap house prices will be thing of the past and cheap workforce also as more companies are attracted by subsides that will follow.

Hopefully the valleys will gain some suitable employment opportunities but until the Brynglass tunnels are sorted and the Newport by pass it I'll till be an issue.

I will look at house around there s there re some lovely big plots that re still cheaper the north Bristol.

[hyphen]

Leaving aside work and house prices, won't this be a boost for Tourism?

[king arthur]

DapperDanMan said:

Please let this happen God let this happen.

It would transform the Midlands motorway bottleneck around M5/M6 and reduce loss of time and pollution dramatically.

It would, but we also desperately need an alternative to the M6 between Birmingham and Manchester, otherwise it's just moving the congestion further north. It's being converted to ALR now but that's too little too late.