mtua
HOME   NEWS   (this page created 15 Mar 2015)

MEETING WITH MERSEYTRAVEL 11th MARCH 2015

This is MTUA version of what was discussed. It is not in order of discussion. At the end is an item that the MUTA had meant to raise but which had been missed of our agenda.

Put on agenda by MT only

Mersey Tunnel Tour

MT repeated their offer for a tour of the Tunnels for a number of MTUA members. The tours are usually for about twenty people but MT suggested that it might be better if it was limited to six or seven. Tours were usually in the evening on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, and on Saturday morning, but these were booked up for some time ahead. MT might be able to arrange an MTUA tour for a different day.
MTUA agreed to discuss this offer again.

Next two items were put on agenda by both MT and MTUA

Tunnel Tolls future – following meeting of Combined Authority on 13 Feb

MTUA was interested in what Joe Anderson, the Liverpool Mayor, had said about tolls only being used for Tunnels purposes. MT said that had not been agreed at that meeting and all that was resolved was that there should be a review of the process by which tolls were set, possibly making it more 'flexible'. The review was also to consider the separate elements of the organisation e.g. Management & Admin, Maintenance, Policing, etc, it was not anticipated that costs would reduce.
There was no mention of the timing of the review or how any consultation would take place.

MT said that MTUA could send in suggestions to MT to be considered by the MT review.
MT and the MTUA disagreed on whether the existing law allowed MT to reduce the tolls payable.
MT said that users and the public did not understand the way that tolls were set.
MT said that any changes might depend on legislation and that it might be difficult to get such changes due to lack of 'Parliamentary time'.

Fast Tag only booth trial on the Wallasey tunnel

MTUA said that this created two classes of users and that having reserved booths for any purposes increased the risk of accidents. MTUA asked how long MT intended to continue with this trial.
Answer from MT implied that the 'trial' would go on indefinitely, and MT intended to extend the 'trial' to the Birkenhead Tunnel.

MT said that before they decided to go ahead with Tag only booths they had received a lot of requests by email etc from users asking for tag only booths. MTUA said that they would put in an FOI request for details.
MT said that they had also had a ''largely positive feedback' since the trial started.
MT considered the scheme to be a success as it had increased lane throughput from 400 vehicles an hour to 700 vehicles an hour. (There was nothing said about how much the throughput on other lanes had slowed down.)

MT said that they had been 1,200 new applications for tags, and they wanted to encourage use of tags as it was their intention to make it cheaper for users. MTUA commented that making it cheaper could be more easily achieved by reducing tolls for everyone.

MTUA asked to what extent MT had considered the increased risk of accidents as research in USA had shown that reserving lanes or booths increased the risk of accidents at toll plazas. MT said they had not considered that research as each toll plaza was different. In any case, MT said they had had no accidents since the trial started.

The following items were all put on the agenda by the MTUA

Use of One way tolling and other possible improvements to toll collection

At previous meetings the MTUA has made suggestions for alterations to the toll booths (such asincreasing the distance between the change booth and the cash basket) and in particular had urged that the tolls should be payable one way only (on entering the Tunnels on the Wirral side). One reason that MT had given for not doing anything on these suggestions was that there was a feasibility study into replacing tolls equipment. The study included looking at the option of having tolling in only one direction.
This study was first mentioned at the Merseytravel / MTUA meeting on 5th April 2013. MTUA asked what was happening.

MT said they had no official view, but unofficially they were opposed to one way tolling. MT said that people would complain that it was a 'Wirral tax' and that in any case most Tunnels users were opposed to one way tolling.

MTUA said that the tolls were already seen as a Wirral tax, and one way tolling would make no difference to that. One way tolling was used on the Severn Crossing had been used in Scotland.
The MTUA strongly believed that most people did want one way tolling as it would halve the hassle for everyone.

Disabled people having to use a manned booth

MTUA again raised the issue of disabled people having to use a manned booth, as moving to that lane is more difficult and more intimidating for a disabled driver than an average driver.
MT again said that they had to have this system in order to check that the disabled person was in the car, and that these checks had found that people were trying to use the passes when they should not.

MT also said that changes to 'eligibility' or tolling systems might have an effect. By 'eligibility' they said that at some tolls the free disabled crossings were assigned to vehicles bought under a disability scheme rather than to the disabled person. By 'system' they meant some automatic way of detecting whether a disabled person was in the vehicle.
MTUA got the impression that nothing was going to change and asked what would happen at Halton as they were going to have barrierless tolls. MT said that they did not know.

(Following the meeting the MTUA checked on this and according to the Halton website:
“Holders of blue badges issued under section 21 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 are exempt from tolls provided that they comply with the registration procedure which is expected to be similar to that used for the Mersey Tunnel tolls.... The exemption from paying the toll is only applicable if the person to whom the blue badge is issued is in the vehicle and it has been verified and registered.”
It will be interesting to see how Halton will check who is in the vehicle if there are no toll booths or barriers.)

Confusion over who is 'Merseytravel'

MT said that it is not clear when 'Merseytravel' is referred to whether it means the former Executive or the Merseytravel Committee. This had already been the subject of a Freedom of Information request.

Confusion over Halton's involvement with the Tunnels and Tunnel tolls

The Merseytravel Committee chair had said on Radio Merseyside that Halton Council could not take part in decisions on the tolls. On 13th Feb, the Combined Authority chairman said something similar “Halton are not formally part of the Tunnel tolls legislation”. The MTUA could find nothing to back up these claims, and asked why Merseytravel were apparently trying to mislead the public on this point.
MT still insisted that Halton would not be voting on the tolls issue.

Older tags

MTUA suggested that there are more problems with older tags and that they should be replaced.
MT said that the older tags were the 'Premid' ones which had been issued from 1992, but since 2006 they had been using 'DSRC' tags, though the supplier changed in 2011.

MT said that failures were either because batteries needed replacing, or drivers had not fitted them in their vehicles as instructed or were waving them at the wrong transceiver.
MT said that they intended to replace the Premid tags, but did not say when.

The next item is one that the MUTA had meant to raise but which had been missed off our agenda and was not discussed

Bus stops just before the turn off into the Wallasey Tunnel when coming from town

At meeting on 14 October 2013, the MTUA had pointed out that bus-stops just before the access to the Wallasey Tunnel were a problem, particularly in the direction going along Scotland Road from the city centre. We had asked 'Can either these stops be relocated or something else be done to improve this approach, possibly by using some of the space which is presently grass or otherwise not used.'

This was raised again on 6 June 2014, our impression was that MT had no intention of doing anything, but in the MT note after the meeting it said “Merseytravel agreed to review the potential of inserting a layover into the site to allow the bus to stop without impacting Tunnel traffic”. What has happened?

Back to top

HOME   NEWS