Hidden in an undisclosed building in Transport for London’s sprawling property network, a team of engineers is developing a secret new road-charging system.But thanks to recent Freedom of Information requests, it was revealed yesterday that millions of taxpayers’ money has already been spent on the shadowy scheme.
READ MORE: Fresh blow for Sadiq Khan's ULEZ revolution as figures reveal congestion in London is worse than it was five years ago Despite reducing traffic being one of Khan’s stated goals when introducing Ulez, new figures from the satellite navigation company TomTom showed this week that traffic congestion in the capital has increased since the scheme was introduced, making London one of the slowest cities to drive through.
Anti-Ulez protesters accused police of 'an abuse of power' for preventing them from walking down Sadiq Khan's home street on Tuesday Yet Fortune had in his possession the document, published almost a year earlier, that stated: ‘We are building a new core technology platform for road user charging to replace the currently outsourced system, for which the contract expires in 2026. The project is named Detroit.’TfL was already employing 97 staff on Project Detroit at the end of 2022. The figure is now 157, with some engineers being paid salaries of more than £100,000.
So what — or who — should we believe? This, after all, is the same Labour mayor who told Fortune, in a written statement in July 2021, that he had ‘no plans to extend the Ulez to outer London’. Revenue from motorists in London this year is expected to top £1 billion for the first time. This is before the expected introduction of a £4 toll to use the Blackwall Tunnel as well as the new £2 billion Silvertown Tunnel due to open next year, which, together, will generate £125 million, annually.
Fortune says: ‘Sadiq Khan can deny it but to use his own words: it’s “crystal clear” he plans to introduce pay-per-mile road-user charges for every motorist. He has a history of saying one thing and doing the opposite.’
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