Tuesday 11th November 2014

Billions for new roads. Maybe

PM promises cash bonanza for road upgrades. If he wins the general election

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We will, of course, understand if your first reaction to a story about a politician promising something for the future is to give unfavourable odds to it actually happening. We're still awaiting that 80mph motorway speed limit we were assured was about to happen several years ago, for a start.

Make the M25 look appealing with a camera

But here's one that's likely to get the debate flowing, with the Prime Minister promising in a speech at the Confederation of British Industry conference he plans to deliver the "biggest, boldest and most far-reaching road improvement programme" for 40 years. We're told that the 'autumn statement' will include plans to allocate another £15bn to new roads and major upgrade projects.

According to newspaper reports, the biggest spends are likely to be on building the long-debated 'Stonehenge tunnel' on the A303. Trunk roads to be upgraded to dual carriageway include the A47 east of Leicester, stretches of the A27 along the south coast and the A1 north of Newcastle. We're also told there will be upgrades to major trans-Pennine routes, lanes added to over-stretched and - reading between the lines - more areas turned into active 'managed motorways.'

Of course, a cynic might point out that there's the small matter of a general election coming next May, and that very little of this is going to be happening before then...

[Source: Telegraph, pics from Highways Agency Flickr]

[anonymous-user]

You'd have to be a fking idiot to believe a word they say on anything. He's telling the CBI what he knows they want to hear, and tomorrow he'll be in front of another group telling them something totally different and the man won't even have the decency to shuffle his feet as he lies to their faces. Until a politician stands up and promises to do "fk all to change the status quo" if they win the next election then they are all liars.

[smilo996]

Politics and pandering wins over logic and practicality again. Next week Labour will launch a new election initiatve designed to invest in rail.

[k-ink]

Politician's promise

[Clivey]

He might as well promise a motorway to Mars within the next 5 years...

[Uncle John]

Only poliical lip service on the eve of a GE but I've been around the south/south west of the country a fair bit recently the roads are simply saturated.

The M25 needs another one building outside of it, and all trunks off of it are just overloaded as any accident or incident results in 10 mile queues!! Not going to happen though unfortunately.....

[TimLambert7]

If it happens, fantastic but it won't.

They're all full of sh*t.

What party can an innocent PHer vote for nowadays?

[exceed]

Will eat my Maserati if this comes to fruition

[k-ink]

Uncle John said:

Only poliical lip service on the eve of a GE but I've been around the south/south west of the country a fair bit recently the roads are simply saturated.

The M25 needs another one building outside of it, and all trunks off of it are just overloaded as any accident or incident results in 10 mile queues!! Not going to happen though unfortunately.....

Indeed our small island is massively over populated. Still, the borders are wide open and people continue to have loads of kids so it will continue to get far more crowded. In the future we will have to travel at night to get anywhere.

[SydneyBridge]

where will all this money come from?? increased fuel duty?
really hope the A303 does get a tunnel under Stonehenge though- right pain in the ass that road... recent 'improvements' have made it worse

[Sheepshanks]

Uncle John said:

The M25 needs another one building outside of it, and all trunks off of it are just overloaded as any accident or incident results in 10 mile queues!! Not going to happen though unfortunately.....

I thought it was originally intended there would be another ring road inside the M25 - so the outside M25 is the one that's already there?

[SteveSteveson]

So, not only is it unlikely that we will actually see half of this, but the other half is stuff that has been in planning for years and not really new spending at all?

[Dion20vt]

[skyrover]

The A1 north of Newcastle has been campaigned for years... far too many have died

I seriously have my doubts considering the amount of broken promises, but can anyone see Labour doing any better?

[juk]

' "biggest, boldest and most far-reaching road improvement programme" for 40 years. ' = more motorway speed cameras.

[k-ink]

juk said:

' "biggest, boldest and most far-reaching road improvement programme" for 40 years. ' = more motorway speed cameras.

Sounds about right.

[thatdude]

I would rather see the money being spent on improving the quality of the current road network. The M25, for example, has some terrible patches which are worse when experieinced on a motorcycle. other roads are also very bad.

[Gecko1978]

would some more toll roads go a miss like the M6. I understand its not very profitable but its my fave road in the UK use it every weekend an its just smooth emptyish highway with a nice (as usual expensive) service station

[loomx]

'more areas turned into active 'managed motorways.'

Nope... Do not want.

[moffat]

I want improved roads, I'm in.

[fatboy18]

Dion20vt said:

+1 COULD NOT AGREE MORE