Public and Commercial Transport

[NewcastleFalcon]

As you may remember back in 2020, when we completed the September Stroll, one of the criteria for the route was to traverse the major river crossings that one or both of us had not used before. For that reason we routed through the Tyne Tunnel but I have no memory of paying a toll!! I certainly have never had a penalty notice for it so was it not in operation then, suspended due to COVId or did I get away with one?

The Tyne Tunnel went cashless on 8th November 2021, so if you went through the tunnel in Sept 2020, you wouldn't have got through the barriers without paying, although at that time "motorists were given the option to ‘pay later’ for passing through, allowing them to receive an invoice and pay online after their journey ended."

REgards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

The Tyne Tunnel went cashless on 8th November 2021, so if you went through the tunnel in Sept 2020, you wouldn't have got through the barriers without paying, although at that time "motorists were given the option to ‘pay later’ for passing through, allowing them to receive an invoice and pay online after their journey ended."

REgards Neil

In which case either I have forgotten, I don't even remember barriers, or we did get away with one!! A belated wahay!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Dartford crossing Has similar arrangements to the Tyne Tunnel

https://www.gov.uk/pay-dartford-crossing-charge

Few years out of date now but a guide to toll roads/bridges/tunnels across the uk from the RAC at the time 2019.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/lega ... s-bridges/


Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Indeed it does. I have an account for Dartford so I pay a monthly invoice, but these days I hardly use it since withdrawing from servicing my old alarm customers!!

[Sloppysod]

So doe sthe new (not so) Mersey Gateway or Silver Jubilee bridges, you drive it take a photo of your numberplate and you have 24 hours to pay.

https://merseygateway.co.uk/mersey-gate ... formation/

Supprised the M6 toll still has pay booths?

[NewcastleFalcon]

To add to toll road bridges and tunnels, and two congestion charging schemes one is London....but where is the other one...for the curious its listed in this article at the bottom.

https://www.gov.uk/uk-toll-roads

To complete the picture of on-road charging (for now it's going to expand) there are also the clean air zones in a number of towns and cities.

Clean Air Zones
https://www.gov.uk/clean-air-zones

You might need to pay to drive in a clean air zone if your vehicle does not meet emissions standards.

Bath
Birmingham
Bradford (charging starts on 26 September 2022)
Bristol (charging starts on 28 November 2022)
Greater Manchester (under review)
Portsmouth
Sheffield (charging starts in early 2023)
Tyneside - Newcastle and Gateshead (charging starts in winter: late 2022 to early 2023)

Most of the proposals seem to set the private car user at a zero rate and focus more on commercial vehicles.

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

That's me staying out of Newcastle then, probably Gateshead too, although daughter #3 lives there.

[Gibbo2286]

I'm testing the public transport today and my bus pass. got an eye pre-examination appointment to get a cataract fixed and they say "don't drive" because they will be using dilating drops.
In the car it would take 25 minutes each way, the bus route, two buses and 35 minutes walking, will come as 1 hour 48 minutes total each way and I'm told an hour for the appointment so I guess my day is all sorted.

[NewcastleFalcon]

That's me staying out of Newcastle then, probably Gateshead too, although daughter #3 lives there.

I think private cars will be free initially Steve...even the ones that don't meet Euro whatever number. They don't want to upset the entire population and in the main the buses and taxis are beginning to take care of themselves. Arriva the sidekick of Deutsche Bahn are even cleaning up their act after years of filling the Haymarket with their smoky exhausts.

Looks like the plans are being delayed.

Plans for Newcastle Clean Air Zone tolls delayed until 2023

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Would have been a good excuse to avoid Newcastle.
Although I can usually come up with one anyway.
Was going to have to go there when the police in Chester-L-Street refused to validate my Livnadsintyg (Proof of life) this year. Turns out that the Consul has retired and not been replaced so the consulate is closed.
Police in Sunderland did the validation though.

[Gibbo2286]

The Severn Bridge tolls hung around for many years before the finally got abolished.
One of my customers a local motorcycle cop reckoned they had a competition to see who could go through the toll gates at over 100 mph.

[Gibbo2286]

I'm testing the public transport today and my bus pass. got an eye pre-examination appointment to get a cataract fixed and they say "don't drive" because they will be using dilating drops.
In the car it would take 25 minutes each way, the bus route, two buses and 35 minutes walking, will come as 1 hour 48 minutes total each way and I'm told an hour for the appointment so I guess my day is all sorted.

Well that turned out as quite a trial.

I went on to the Stagecoach website and carefully worked out the trip a 23 bus from home to Gloucester then a change to a number 10 for the rest of the way to Barnwood, printed out the route and times, rechecked in the morning before setting off.

The list said change at the 'Warehouse' ,a ten minute wait between buses, the number ten due at 14.00 didn't arrive, next one due at 14.15 didn't arrive so now I'm sweating on getting to my appointment, had to walk half a mile into town and find a taxi, cost me a tenner but I just scraped in on time.
A few nice words for Stagecoach when I get going this morning, I assume the buses were re-routed but they haven't informed their route planner website.

[NewcastleFalcon]

When you are used to the convenience of your own motor car, public transport can be a nightmare of hanging around missed connections, and cancelled services and that's apart from the fellow travellers. Things like the metro are fine, miss one few minutes later the next one comes along. Don't even have to know what time they are supposed to arrive.

I see in Steve's neck of the woods the Chester-le-Street-ians are having a right old whinge about their train service. Problem for them is that it runs on the two-track East-Coast mainline so there aren't enough slots for local frequent metro style trains to run into town. The mainline trains may well stop at Durham, but another stop 4 miles down the track at Chester-le-street ain't going to happen.


Aerial view of Chester Burn Railway Viaduct, Chester-le-Street
Stuart.renneberg, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

A shame.
My grandson was supposed to get a train to Bournemouth, cancelled, had to get it in Newcastle. That was also cancelled. Ended up on a 12-hour bus ride to Plymouth and a lift to Bournemouth.
Same for the return journey.

Chester Le Street station is good, at least the staff there, can offer much better rates than booking online.

I came into Newcastle from Belgium. Flight was about forty minutes to Heathrow, half an hour to Newcastle, bus to Washington two and a half hours, a ninety minute wait for the bus.

Six hour wait in Heathrow but we won't mention that.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Bradford Clean Air Zone went live 26/09/2022

Bradford Clean Air Zone went live Monday 26/09/2022



Charges passenger cars and motorbikes zero charge, £50/day for non-compliant buses and HGV's.
Full list of charges
https://bradford.gov.uk/media/5716/caz-charge-table.pdf

Regards Neil