A14 Toll No choice

[baldy1926]

Is this the thin end of the wedge.
Its been announced that the new a14 will be a toll road only.
There will be no easy alternative to using the toll so can we be expected to start paying for every no bit of road.
The local hgv companies at Felixstowe are not happy as they are a captive audience.

[saaby93]

which new bit of a14?

[DougMcC]

I live in one of the villages next to the A14. My main worry is how the toll will affect us locals!

[baldy1926]

Its been all over the local bbc news but nothing on their website at the moment

[DougMcC]

http://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/latest-news/a14_hu...

[radiodanno]

From what I know... Cambridge to Huntingdon. So the bit that is north of the clover leaf at Girton. They are building a new stretch to bypass Huntingdon and Spittals.

[saaby93]

Does it need a new road or would it be enough to revise all the legacy road junctions to make the a14 the through route?

[s p a c e m a n]

Right, so they're going to build a new toll road and knock down the old section of A14. All of the locals will use other roads and any through traffic from south will now use the A1 instead, the only vehicles that may use the toll will be freight from Felixstowe depending on the price. Huntingdon already has a weight limit on it so that is probably their plan to guarantee some use, everyone will just use the A428 instead though.

If you live in Huntingdon, buy a bicycle and if you work in a warehouse there start looking for a new job.

[Atrevetetete]

Toll proposed to be at £1 for cars.

Joke of a proposal for a joke of a road, and for all the time involved and money that will be spent, definitely not the best solution.

[SonicShadow]

Ridiculous, isn't it? The A14 is a vital bit of the road network as it connects the Midlands to the East and the South East. Improvements should be funded by taxes, not by a toll.

[Atrevetetete]

More ridiculous still when you consider how vital it is to Cambridge and how dangerous it is. I knew of several people who've been tragically killed or injured on that stretch of road. It's an almost daily occurrence.

[mygoldfishbowl]

Haulage company boss Paul Dawson said:

“These tolls don’t work – it doesn’t work at Birmingham, and it won’t work here in Suffolk.”

clicky

I agree with him.

[joebongo]

mygoldfishbowl said:

clicky

I agree with him.

It doesn't matter whether it works, it matters that some rich people can get even richer.

[dapearson]

i've commuted along it to camb for 7 yrs now. it could be improved massively by some simple and cheap fixes, but the will doesn't seem to be there to do it

[V8 Fettler]

A14 was designed by cheapskate bean counters, hence the need for remedial works. It's a nonsense that UK motorists pay substantially more in taxes related to road use than is spent on the roads, that's the first thing that needs to be fixed.

[anonymous-user]

dapearson said:

i've commuted along it to camb for 7 yrs now. it could be improved massively by some simple and cheap fixes, but the will doesn't seem to be there to do it

[dapearson]

OpulentBob said:

ban lorries from overtaking at peak times

close laybys. build dedicated east-bound lorry park with loooong slip road.

extend all slip roads.

improve girton junction going east by making left 2 lanes feed a14/camb and reduce lanes feeding m11 down to 1. currently it's 1 for a14 and 2 for m11 but people use the middle lane for a14 and jump between lanes causing people to brake. this would reduce the massive queues at bar hill that block m11 traffic just because the a14 is shagged east of camb

improve roundabout at a428 south of papworth. add dedicated lane left onto a428 so traffic doesn't have to queue at roundabout to go left. this gets really busy when a14 is jammed.

just a few ideas

[Pan Pan]

Why is the motoring public being made to pay for something that THEIR motor taxes have already paid for several thousand times over? (Same as the Dartford crossing where the tolls were to have been completely removed in 2002, only they not only kept the tolls in place, but INCREASED them.
I suspect the powers that be realised that as the motoring public had already got used to the idea of tolls, they could take the liberty of doing what they have done, with a good chance of getting away with it)

[king arthur]

When the hell are they going to sort out the Cattethorpe interchange? That needs doing yesterday, never mind building toll roads. If we had a proper transport policy that would be underway now and the whole of the A14 upgraded to motorway standard, instead of blowing billions on a high speed railway only a few will use.

[CraigyMc]

mygoldfishbowl said:

Haulage company boss Paul Dawson said:

“These tolls don’t work – it doesn’t work at Birmingham, and it won’t work here in Suffolk.”

clicky

I agree with him.

Tolls were binned in Scotland years ago. Why not Suffolk?