Sadiq Khan ‘Is Waging War On Motorists To Plug The £15 Billion Blackhole In TfL Finances’
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on London Loves Business.
These are the first three paragraphs.
Sadiq Khan plans to raise at least £123 million per year by charging motorists to drive through the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels.
In a written response to a question from City Hall Conservatives, the Mayor said tolls would be introduced on both tunnels when the new Silvertown Tunnel opens in 2025.
The Mayor said Transport for London (TfL) would receive revenue from the new tolls and penalty notices, less the cost of annual construction repayments and maintenance fees. The Mayor, who is chairman of TfL, has previously said he expects tolls and penalties to ‘more than cover’ these annual costs.
I don’t drive, so the cost of using the tunnels, has no effect on my finances.
This document from TfL says this about car usage in London.
London residents aged 16+ make 4.6m car driver trips and 1.4m car passenger trips
on an average day, of which 3.7m are within London, with the remainder involving
travel to and from London. Non-residents make around 1 million car journeys a day
to, from or within London.
It does look that London has a lot of car drivers and passengers.
Surely, out of common decency, the toll for using the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels, should be disclosed by Sadiq Khan before the London Mayor Election later this year.
Or is he frightened, that the size of the toll will lose him votes?
The Anonymous Widower 
And of course, he really installed the ULEZ infrastructure to charge every motorist from outside greater London (so who can’t vote him out) to drive into the conurbation.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mur_des_Fermiers_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9raux
Comment by R. Mark Clayton | January 4, 2024 |
Why should the cost of constructing the tunnel fall on the majority of Londoners who will never use it?
Comment by JohnC | January 6, 2024 |
Because the tunnel will make it easier to get to City Hall from South London, it will encourage a better class of GLA representative.
Comment by AnonW | January 6, 2024 |