Filed under: Legislation and Policy, UK
London congestion charge zone expansion canceled by new mayor
Prior to the mayoral election in London, England earlier this year, former mayor Ken Livingstone had grand plans to expand the scope of the city's congestion charge. Following the election, the man commonly referred to as "Red Ken" was supplanted by Boris Johnson and things began to change. Johnson has now decided that the expansion of the congestion zone to the western part of London will be canceled. Surprisingly when Johnson asked Londoners what they thought of the congestion zone expansion, two-thirds were opposed to it. Since the expansion was already implemented prior to the election, it will take time to fully roll it back. It will apparently take until spring of 2010 to make the changes, and the changes will cost Transport for London £70 million annually in lost tolls.[Source: What Car?]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jeff 12:31PM (12/01/2008)
Man... BJ is a chump. Apparently he's gonna be the SIARPC on Top Gear next week. It was a big let down for me when Ken lost this election. He was a really good mayor who really knew how to run the show.
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Doc 1:11PM (12/01/2008)
"Surprisingly when Johnson asked Londoners what they thought of the congestion zone expansion, two-thirds were opposed to it."
Surprisingly???????????????????????????? The poeple have spoken, they don't like the idea. time to move on.
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Scatter 2:46PM (12/01/2008)
It is quite surprising. Congestion in the area will go up and the residents will lose their discount.
It's just a sad waste of cash to cancel it now. But then Boris doesn't care.
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soul7963 6:48AM (12/02/2008)
As a resident and cycle commuter in west London, i can safely say that the congestion zone for west London has had no impact on actually reducing congestion.
The west extension has only allowed people living in Kensington and Chelsea to get a large discount on bringing their 4x4s into central London because of the resident discount.
The sooner they can scrap it the better!
dudley 8:59AM (12/02/2008)
It's actually very simple.
You get 90% off if you live in the zone. The extension takes in all the area where idiots buy the huge trucks and jeeps.
So suddenly instead of paying the full whack, they get a 90% discount and into the main part of London they go.
The solution is to only have the main area, then the idiotmobiles pay the full £25. I like Ken, I voted for Ken but from the start he self evidently had this one dead wrong.
(For full disclosure, I live about 400m outside the edge of the expanded zone)
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BOB2 5:06PM (3/09/2009)
Business and job losses, where congestion-access was limited, no change in many areas, no revenue for the tube or busses, lots of revenue for the vendor. And, people keep touting this congestion pricing scheme as some kind of "success". I guess that's why Red Ken is still Mayor? Right wing twaddle, implemented by a left wing Mayor. Politics does make for strange bedfellows.
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