[A-List] UK state: London mayoral election

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Congestion charge will cause chaos, Livingstone warned
By Nigel Morris
The Independent, 16 December 2002

Ken Livingstone's congestion-charging scheme for London faces chaos when it
is launched in February, a report will warn today.

The report, from the London Assembly, forecasts that Tube and bus journeys
will be longer and more uncomfortable and that thousands of drivers will use
streets outside the city centre to dodge the £5 daily charge. "For those
living on the edge of the charging zone this amounts to a 'double whammy' -
more overcrowding on trains and a greater likelihood of 'rat-running' in
local streets," the assembly's transport committee predicts.

While it backs the principle of the London Mayor's scheme, the committee
says it fears the public transport system will be overloaded. Tube and rail
services are already running near to capacity - and will become full with
outer London commuters - and buses will have to take the bulk of extra
demand when drivers leave cars at home.

"Additional rail and Underground passengers are expected to be those
commuting from outer London; these passengers are expected to displace
commuters currently taking shorter journeys to work," it says. "Inner
Londoners will either wait longer to get on to Tube or train, or will start
commuting by bus."

The assembly says 14,000 of the extra 20,000 public-transport passengers a
day will travel by bus and that it has been reassured by the Mayor's
Transport for London (TfL) body that the buses can cope with increased
demand. But it adds: "It remains to be seen whether Londoners will view this
as a credible alternative or will be frustrated by the continuing high level
of crowding."

Charging should not be introduced until a "real improvement in the
reliability and journey times" of most bus routes into central London has
been made, it argues. "Londoners should not be compelled to use the bus
system simply because they cannot board overcrowded trains."

With TfL forecasting that streets will experience a rise of up to 200 cars
an hour as drivers try to divert around the zone, the assembly says only a
quarter of the schemes designed to minimise "rat-running" will be in place
by the time charging is introduced. Committee members say they remain
concerned over the "complex and logistically difficult" technology handling
the scheme.

Assembly members also criticise Mr Livingstone for declining to reveal how
and when he will judge whether the scheme is a success, although he has
spent £200m of taxpayers' money setting it up. "We find it astounding that a
scheme, which will have a major impact on London, can be arbitrarily
withdrawn without any published performance criteria by which it can be
publicly judged," the report says.