IET: Plan to use tolls to fund A14 improvements abandoned
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has responded to news that plans to create the UK's first toll road for a decade are to be dropped, with improvements to the A14 instead funded from general taxation.
Phil Blythe, Chair of the IET’s Transport Policy Panel said: “This was always going to happen as they set the toll so low that whoever built the road and toll infrastructure would never recover their investment.
“What is needed is a network of such roads around the UK, to share the cost and the back office to make this feasible. In general, we support the idea of allowing private companies to build additional lanes on existing roads and recover the costs through tolls. We have to make the proposition attractive for investors. Technology is not an issue and the UK has a major pool of expertise in this area.”
Ends
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