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2018 MTUA News

  • April 1 - TOLL INCREASE PROTEST
    We had a protest this morning at the Wallasey Tunnel. The turnout was not as much as we hoped, but thank you to all those who were there.
    mtua


  • April 1 - TOLL TO CROSS THE DEE
    Deeside.com 1 Apr - "Councillors left fuming at government plans to pocket most of the money from Flintshire bridge tolls".
    Notice the date!!

  • April 1 - CROSS THE RIVER TOLL FREE
    Echo 1 Apr - "How can you cross the River Mersey on foot?".


  • March 28 - TOLL INCREASE PROTEST
    Most tolls go up on Easter Sunday, 1st April and the MTUA will be protesting. It will be from 10 am till noon at our usual spot - the bridge which goes over the Tunnel entrance on Oakdale Road, Wallasey, CH44 7HS.
    It is Easter Sunday and we realise that most people will have other things to do, but it is the day that they chose to increase the tolls and so is the best day to show that we are against both the increase and the politicians going back on claims that they would reduce all tolls.

    - Echo 28 Mar - "Protest planned for Easter Sunday rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls"   Globe 28 Mar - "Easter Sunday protest against Mersey Tunnel tolls increase".


  • March 15 - ROAD SPEND ON "TUNNELS"
    The City region at a meeting on the 9th March approved £25 million of road spending, including £3.1 million on the Tunnels (scheme 7) - Place North West 12 Mar - "Road spend approved for Liverpool City Region".
    Though not many would realise that the Bidston viaduct which is a mile before the Tunnel entrance is part of the Tunnel. Why is Highways England not funding this?


  • March 5 - TUNNEL CHASE
    Echo 3 Mar - "'Stolen' car crashes inside Birkenhead tunnel after police chase".


  • February 28 - MERSEYRAIL STRIKES PLANNED FOR MARCH 3RD
    Globe 25 Feb - "Passengers urged to plan ahead of strike on Merseyrail".


  • February 23 - LORRY BROKEN DOWN
    Globe 19 Feb - "Wallasey Tunnel delays after broken down HGV".


  • February 16 - 'CONGESTION CHARGE' THAT DOES NOT HIT DRIVERS
    DfT 16 Feb "Congestion busting scheme rolled out to benefit drivers".


  • February 16 - 'SCRAP THE 'DIVISIVE, UNFAIR' MERSEY TUNNEL TOLLS'
    Globe 14 Feb - Letter from MTUA.
    The same edition of the Globe had a letter complaining about bus serviuces being withdrawn because Merseytravel no longer supported them. Apparently this is because the authority is supposed to be hard up. There is no mention of the reserves that the authority has built up - over £200 million. All of which is apparently being spent on new trains.


  • February 12 - MERSEYTRAVEL GIVE A HELPING HAND TO ROUGH SLEEPERS
    Echo 12 Feb "Mersey Tunnel shaft doors will be moved so rough sleepers can't stay there" lot of comments.
    Interesting that the Tunnels Police area apparently includes North John Street.


  • February 9 - SCOTLAND THE BRAVE
    Sunday the 11th marks the tenth anniversary of the end of tolls in Scotland. This started with the bravery of the people of Skye who challenged the tolls and were prepared to go to jail. They saw off the Skye bridge tolls in December 2004. Other continued the fight and the other three tolls were all removed by 11 February 2008 SMT Press release 9 Feb "Scrap Mersey Tolls Press Release - Tenth Anniversary Of No Tolls In Scotland - Wales Following Them, And England Left Behind".


  • February 9 - 'CHARITY' BIKE RIDE
    A strange story in the Echo about one of these so called 'Charity' bike rides. You know the ones where it is not clear how much of the fee goes to charities. This one is on the 1st July, but the Echo says that part of the Birkenhaed Tunnel was closed for it. We know that Merseytravel hate vehicle users, but are they really causing chaos five months early? Echo 8 Feb "This is why police blocked Birkenhead tunnel exit this afternoon".


  • February 9 - THREAT TO GLASGOW'S TOLL FREE TUNNEL
    There are no tolls anywhere in Scotland since 2008 but nameless 'officials' want them introduced on Glasgow's tunnel under the Clyde. Sunday Herald 4 Feb "Glasgow council officials: Clyde Tunnel tolls would raise vital revenue".


  • February 5 - TOLL INCREASE - PRESS RELEASE FROM MTUA FOLLOWING LETTER FROM METRO MAYOR IN FRIDAY'S ECHO
    Our press relaese.


  • February 4 - TOLL INCREASE - LETTER FROM MTUA
    Letter sent to Combined Authority leaders and to Transport committee.


  • February 3 - CITY REGION ENDORSE TOLL INCREASE ON VOTE OF STEVE ROTHERAM - VIDEO
    Video made by John Brace of Tolls part of the meeting.


  • February 2 - CITY REGION ENDORSE TOLL INCREASE ON VOTE OF STEVE ROTHERAM
    The Council Leaders met today to decide on their budget including the tolls. A vote on the tolls increase was forced by Phil Davies, the Leader of Wirral Council, who said that he had had many representations from people who opposed any increase.
    There are only seven people who can vote on the level of tolls. Steve Rotheram the Metro Mayor voted first and voted in favour of the tolls increase.
    Phil Davies and Ann O'Byrne, representing Joe Anderson the Liverpool City Mayor, both voted against the increase. Ian Maher, Leader of Sefton Council, and Derek Long, representing St Helens, both voted for the tolls increase. There was no one there from Knowsley and Rob Polhill, the Leader of Halton Council abstained. As it was three for the tolls increase and two against, the increase was carried and the cash tolls will go up at the beginning of April.

    MTUA Press release following the meeting.
    Wirral Globe 2 Feb "Campaigners vow to fight on after Mersey Tunnel toll increase is approved"   Click L'pool 2 Feb "Metro Mayor votes for Mersey Tunnel toll rise".

    The Liverpool Echo seems to have blacklisted both the MTUA and 'Scrap Mersey Tolls', so in their version of the story therte is no mention of the opposition to the tolls - Echo 2 Feb "Mersey Tunnel tolls WILL increase despite Liverpool and Wirral council leaders trying to block move".


  • February 1 - CITY REGION TRANSPORT CTTEE RECOMMEND TOLL INCREASE
    Majority of councillors vote to recommend a tolls increase though six vote against and three abstain.
    Wirral Globe 1 Feb "Councillors vote in favour of Mersey Tunnel toll increase".
    Video made by John Brace of Tolls part of the meeting.
    Report on John Brace's Blog.
    Letter sent by MTUA to councillors after today's meeting.


  • January 31 - MORE ON METRO COUNCIL LEADERS TO BREAK THEIR PROMISES
    MTUA Press release 31 January.

    Letter that MTUA sent on 28th to Council leaders and to councillors on the Transport Cttee.

  • January 25 - METRO COUNCIL LEADERS TO BREAK THEIR PROMISES
  • The City Region leaders have broken the promises to scrap profit taking and reduce all Tunnels tolls. Instead they are proposing to increase the cash toll from £1.70 to £1.80. They also propose to reduce the tag toll from £1.20 to £1.00, but this will only be for those using the Tunnels on Sundays or at night (from 7pm and 7am Monday to Saturday).
    The overall result is that they will be making a profit of over £12 million.

    They are of course after more money, but another likely reason for this is that the Region bosses are in cahoots with Halton Council and they are all doing their best to help keep the Gateway tolls high and to possibly get them even higher. There is no direct link between the Tunnels tolls and the tolls on the Gateway or Silver Jubilee bridge, but as they are the only crossings of the Mersey west of Warrington, toll levels on the tunnels will influence toll levels on the bridges and vice versa. The Gateway cash toll for cars is currently £2.00, but the Council has the power to increase this to £2.50 plus inflation since April 2008, which would increase the bridge toll to over £3.00.

    This story started with - a press release from the City Region on the 23rd.

    These are some of the initial reports - Globe 24 Jan "Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram plans to slash Mersey Tunnel tolls for off-peak fast tag users"   Click L'pool 23 Jan "Mersey Tunnel tolls to be slashed at selected times"   L'pool Echo 23 Jan "Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram announces plan to cut Mersey tunnel tolls - but only at certain times" lot of comments.

    And here is some of the reaction to that and the later news that Cash tolls may be increased - North Wales Daily Post 25 Jan "Mersey Tunnels toll price HIKE for North Wales drivers"     BBC 24 Jan "Mersey tunnel tolls: Fare cut pledge 'watered down'"   Click L'pool 24 Jan "Mersey Tunnel tolls set to increase "   L'pool Echo 24 Jan "Mersey tunnel tolls: Cash price set to RISE by 10p" lot of comments   L'pool Echo 24 Jan "Anger at Metro Mayor's tunnel toll offer - as he suggests cash price will RISE" LOTS of comments.

    John McGoldrick, a spokesman for the MTUA and Scrap Mersey Tolls was today on the Roger Philips lunchtime show talking about the tolls (six minute mp3 file.
    The biggest printed paper in the region - the Echo - continues to ignore organised opposition to the tolls. This is the press release that was sent out to the Echo and other local news media.

    Merseytravel report on Tolls going to the Transport Cttee 1 Feb 2018.

    There is no Tolls report going to the Authority though it is supposed to be them who determine the tolls. Instaed all we get is a mention in section 5.4 of the budget report going to the Combined Authority on 2 Feb 2018.


  • January 25 - ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO TOLL ALL ROADS
    BBC 24 Jan "Road use charges should be tailored to drivers, says report".


  • January 25 - GOVERNMENT DESPERATELY FLOGGING ELECTRIC CARS
    DfT 12 Jan "Funding for thousands of electric car charge points unused by councils".


  • January 25 - ON THE WAY DOWN
    Tolls on the Severn Crossing are reduced, though they are due to be removed anyway at the end of the year - Highways England 8 Jan "Reduced tolls on Severn bridges begin 8 January 2018".


  • January 7 - CLOSURE
    Globe 2 Jan "TRAVEL: Birkenhead Tunnel dock exit closed due to emergency repairs".


  • January 7 - CRASH?
    According to some reports, Merseytravel lent out one of the Tunnels so that Hollyoaks could stage a fatal crash. None of the local media have reported this bizarre behaviour of Merseytravel.


    2017 MTUA News

  • December 31 - M53 HISTORY
    Echo 26 Dec "The story of the M53 - how the mid-Wirral motorway was built".


  • December 24 - 'FESTIVE SEASON'
    L'pool Echo 24 Dec "Mersey Tunnel tolls suspended - and here's why - Free travel between Liverpool and Wirral over festive season".
    Be warned that the Echo's 'festive season' is quite a short one - it is only 30 hours and most of that is night time. Though as ITV used the same story, it is Merseytavel who reckon that Xmas is short.
    Oddly the Echo does not tell its readers why the tolls are suspended. the answer is an easy one - it is a sop from the Merseytravel Scrooges to those people who complain about tolls.
    The Echo does tell its readers about some changes to toll collection but does not mention that Merseytravel still refuse to have one way tolls.


  • December 24 - MORE ON MONEY FOR ROAD TO PEEL'S DOCKS
    Highways England 21 Dec "Bypass is best A5036 option says Highways England ".


  • December 24 - MORE MISERYRAIL STRIKES EXPECTED
    Train Guards continue their fight for their jos and train safety - L'pool Echo 20 Dec "Merseyrail staff will strike three times in a WEEK in January in train guards row".


  • December 10 - MORE ON MERSEY TOLLS DEBATE IN COMMONS
    Click L'pool 6 Dec "MPs demand urgent review of Mersey Gateway Bridge tolls"  L'pool Echo 5 Dec "People "having to give up their jobs" because of new Mersey Gateway bridge tolls"  : Click L'pool 4 Dec "Mersey tolls to be subject of parliamentary debate".


  • December 3 - TOLLS DEBATE
    Christian Matheson, Labour MP for Chester, applied in October for a debate on tolls on the Mersey crossing - Tunnels and bridges. The debate has now been arranged for Tuesday 5th December at 9.30 AM in Westminster Hall.
    We do not know what ground he aims to cover, but below is what he said to the Backbench Businesses Committee on 24th October when he requested time for a debate. "..This issue, as I said in my application, is causing consternation in the sub-region that I represent. There are now four crossings on the River Mersey and every single one is tolled: there are two tunnels and now two bridges.

    The problem is that the first bridge—the original crossing—from Runcorn to Widnes, has also been tolled now that the new Mersey crossing has opened. Essentially, that potentially adds a commuting cost of £1,000 to people who, until now, did not have to pay. It comes at a time when bridges in other parts of the country—the crossings across the Forth and, following the Government’s recent announcement, the Severn—are being abolished. So people in my area are rather bewildered and a little let down that we have to pay those charges. Not only is the introduction of a retrospective charge putting people’s backs up, but we are seeing the contrary in other parts of the country.

    Ms McDonagh just spoke of nuts and bolts issues and I accept that this is somewhat of a niche issue for my sub-region, but because the crossings are fairly central to that sub-region, in order to get from one side of the Mersey to the other, it is pretty important to the lives of many people.

    The new crossing has opened in the last week. The old Runcorn-Widnes bridge, which will in turn be tolled, is closed for repairs and construction, so everyone has been having to go across the new crossing. There have been public demonstrations against the tolls as the bridge has opened, and there is a feeling that we seem to be getting the wrong end of the stick, which other parts of the country do not get...."

  • November 19 - TRAINS, AND TRAINS, AND TRAINS
    More money for trains - DfT 16 Nov "North set to become first region in country to get new transport powers from government".


  • November 19 - I PLEDGE THAT I WILL REPEAT MY PLEDGE
    Various reports on the 16th that, later in the day, the City Region Mayor would be repeating various pledges, including reducing Tunnel tag tolls to £1.00, Oddly none of the papers bothered to report that he actually said anything!


  • November 6 - PETITION AND POLL
    At the time of adding this story, 1,100 people had voted in the Globe's poll, 97% of votes agreeing that Mersey Tunnel tolls should be scrapped Globe 3 Nov "New petition calls to scrap all Mersey tolls to end 'highway robbery'".


  • November 6 - INFORMATION REQUEST KNOCKED INTO TOUCH
    Since 2015 we have been trying to find out what has been going on since the pre 2015 General election promises about reducing or removing tolls. The Government have been fighting not to reveal anything and last week the Information Tribunal effectively sent us back to the beginning. We have made a new information request - Information Tribunal 30 Oct 2017 "Appeal Reference: EA/2016/0286".
    The decision notice that was the subject of the appeal - ICO 17 Dec 2016 "Reference: FS50627712".


  • October 23 - TOO LITTLE
    The Government is again boasting about all the money it is spending on the roads "15 billion pounds". What it does not say is that this is spread over 2015 to 2020, so that's £3 billion a year , or only 6% of the annual taxes on drivers. Highways England 19 Oct "£15billion road upgrade plan updated to minimise congestion'".


  • October 23 - MORE MONEY TO BE WASTED ON RICH MANS TOYS
    DfT 18 Oct "Boost for electric and driverless car industry as government drives forward green transport revolution".


  • October 23 - BANK OF THIEVES MAKING MONEY WORTH-LESS
    The RPI is now at 3.9%, increasing the possible level of Tunnels tolls. BBC 17 Oct "UK inflation at highest since April 2012".


  • October 9 - EMPTY RAIL TUNNELS
    Echo 8 Oct "See Liverpool's secret rail tunnels which linked world-famous Mersey waterfront".


  • October 9 - DELUSIONS FIFTEEN
    Chester Chronicle 7 Oct "Merseyrail Tube dream would create better links for Chester and Cheshire Oaks".


  • October 9 - MTUA LETTER
    Wirral Globe 4 Oct "Stop the Mersey Tunnel tolls" letter.
    Sad that the only comment is from 'Croaker' who says "You need a hobby, haven't you realised after all this time that this is a lost cause?"


  • October 9 - MISERYRAIL HAVE A CRY IN THE ECHO
    Echo 3 Oct "Merseyrail questions striking guards' commitment to helping city succeed" lots of comments.
    The majority of comments attack the guards for defending jobs and safety. Can it be that all these Echo readers are Dutch - just like the firm that runs the trains?


  • October 9 - TUNNEL CLOSED FOR ANOTHER 'CHARITY' RUN
    As usual the Tunnel was closed for what was said to be a 'charity' run, though little of the entry fees may end up going to charity. We notice that this time the Echo does not mention 'charity'??? Echo 1 Oct "Spot yourself at the Mersey Tunnel 10k".


  • September 30 - ECHO TELLS THE "REAL" STORY
    Echo 30 Sep "17 deaths and 250 tonnes of explosive: The real story behind Merseyside's tunnels".
    Strange that the Echo rarely reports on complaints abut the way the Tunnels are run or about the tolls.


  • September 30 - MISERYRAIL STRIKES
    Globe 26 Sep "Time to plan ahead of strike action on Merseyrail and Northern services".


  • September 30 - BUSES ON THE UP
    Globe 25 Sep "Rise in youngsters using bus services across Merseyside".


  • September 30 - ANOTHER TUNNEL - SAME STORY
    Tyneside is the only other area of Britain where a crossing is controlled by a body whose main aim is to rip-off drivers - Chronicle 28 Sep "Taking its toll: Why do we have to pay to use the Tyne Tunnel and are we being ripped off?".


  • September 30 - ANOTHER TUNNEL - ANOTHER STORY
    The plans for a £1.6 billion pound toll free tunnel under Stonehenge edge forward - Auto Express 13 Sep "Stonehenge tunnel part of new plans to tackle A303 traffic problems".

    One comment says - "This infrastructure will cost £1.6 billion and will apparently be free to use, while the Welsh government is finally abolishing tolls to cross the River Severn. This is just as a relatively low cost bridge is to be opened to cross the Mersey at Runcorn which will cost a £2 toll each way. The existing bridge is to be simultaneously closed, so the most westerly free crossing of the Mersey will be the Thelwall viaduct (M6) which is east of Warrington. If the south west can have toll free roads to boost business and tourism, why must we in the so-called Northern Powerhouse have to pay?"


  • September 20 - MORE MISERYRAIL STRIKES OVER JOB CUTS
    L'pool Echo 19 Sep "Union announce further strike action in dispute over Merseyrail's plan for driver-only trains".


  • September 20 - ADDICT SMASH IN BIRKENHEAD TUNNEL
    L'pool Echo 18 Sep "Drug addict smashes into family's car in Mersey Tunnel after falling asleep at wheel".


  • September 16 - DELUSIONS FOURTEEN
    L'pool Echo 14 Sep "Liverpool to Manchester in SIX minutes? Super high speed tunnel train plan moves a step closer".


  • September 16 - WHERE?
    Globe 14 Sep "TRAVEL: Congestion at Birkenhead Tunnel due to broken down car".
    If "Congestion is building from the toll booths to A59 Byrom Street towards Liverpool", then where was the breakdown?


  • September 10 - TRANSPORT CHAOS TO COME?
    Merseytravel have for some years wanted the Byrom Street flyover removed so that there will be more congestion in the Byrom Street area between the two Tunnels. Now one possible barrier to their dream will not be there. Echo 9 Sep "Flyover won't be given special protection from demolition".


  • September 10 - GRAVY TRAIN
    On Friday's Roger Philips phone in, Steve Rotheram washed his hands of the tolls.But he did mention that he was all in favour of the new Mersey bridge as he had to cross the river to get the train from Runcorn to London. By coincidence on Saturday the Echo had a story about him usually travelling first class.
    Though the main user of first class is apparently George Howarth who MTUA members may remember back in 2003 and earlier was one of the MPs who was VERY keen for Merseytravel to have more power to increase Tunnel tolls and use the money elsewhere - first class train carriages? Echo 9 Sep "Merseyside MP and Metro Mayor's first-class train travel revealed".


  • September 8 - 'JOY' AS ROADWORKS END
    Echo 8 Sep "Commuter joy as key city centre route set to reopen after more than A YEAR".
    Only in Liverpool would drivers put up with a road being closed so that they can replace a bridge over a track that has no trains!


  • September 8 - MERSEYTRAVELS'S TOO LITTLE AND TOO LATE CHANGES
    Wirral blogger, John Brace, has posted his video of the meeting where the City region's Transport Committee (formerly known as the Merseytravel Committee) rubber stamped the Merseytravel plans without one member making any comment - You Tube 8 Sep "Transport Committee (Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) 7th September 2017 Part 2 of 3".

    The MTUA reaction to the plans was published in the Globe, but Echo readers will only have seen Merseytravel's side - Wirral Globe 6 Sep "No change for Mersey tunnels" letter.


  • September 8 - NO GAMES
    Liverpool will not be hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games. There will be various reasons for this, but having a region that will be divided by a tolls barrier would not have been appealing, or where all the events to be held on the north side of the river? Echo 7 Sep "Liverpool loses 2022 Commonwealth Games bid"   BBC 7 Sep "2022 Commonwealth Games: Birmingham congratulated by vanquished Liverpool".


  • September 8 - VIRGIN CLAIMS LONDONERS ARE FLOCKING TO LIVERPOOL
    Echo 6 Sep "For the first time more people are getting the train from London to Liverpool than the other way round".


  • September 8 - TRAINS TO STAND STILL AT END OF THE MONTH
    Echo 6 Sep "Why Liverpool could be brought to a STANDSTILL next month".


  • September 4 - MORE ON TOO LITTLE AND FAR TOO LATE
    Unfortunately the Echo seem to have no facility for comments to be added to this story - Echo 4 Sep "Contactless card payments being introduced at Wallasey and Birkenhead tunnels".
    We sent them this letter which was not published- "Merseytravel have announced some 'improvements' to toll collection at the Tunnels. Some of the changes were suggested by us and others years ago, what they now say that they will do is too little and too late.
    One of the improvements is that "In future payments at staffed lanes will be also taken directly by tunnels staff, rather than cash being handed back to drivers to then be paid into the toll machine." Drivers have been complaining about the present system which causes delays at the manned toll booths since the 'system' was introduced over thirty years ago. Why has it taken so long to remove these delays?

    Merseytravel are failing to making the change that we have suggested would make the biggest improvement.That change is the introduction of one way tolls, with a toll only payable on entry to the Tunnels at the Wirral side and with no toll payable by traffic coming from Liverpool. This is far better than the changes that Merseytravel plan to make and would also mean that there would be an end to the risk of traffic queuing in the Tunnels because of traffic ahead waiting to pay the tolls.

    Though of course the biggest improvement of all would be to remove the tolls completely. On Monday the Queen opened a new toll free bridge across the Forth. Echo readers may wonder why we still have tolls on the Mersey Tunnels and will also soon have to pay to cross the river between Widnes and Runcorn."

  • September 4 - CONGESTION TAX
    BBC 2 Sep "Councils to be allowed to charge for road closures".
    Sounds like a good idea, but it is more likely that it will act like a tax, with the utility companies passing on the charges in their bills.


  • September 1 - TOO LITTLE AND FAR TOO LATE
    Globe 1 Sep "Mersey Tunnel toll-booths set for improvement works later this month".


  • September 1 - GOVERNMENT TO SPEND £300 MILLION TO GIVE BOOST TO PEEL PORTS AND MERSEY GATEWAY TOLL
    Highways England 31 Aug "£300 million road projects to improve journeys in Merseyside and Cheshire".


  • September 1 - RAIL STRIKES
    Echo 31 Aug "Three Merseyrail strikes this weekend WILL go ahead after crunch talks break down".


  • August 30 - NEW TOLL FREE BRIDGE OPEN TO TRAFFIC BUT MERSEYSIDERS KEPT IN THE DARK
    On our Mersey Gateway news page.


  • August 30 - MORE ON DECISION TO AXE SOME WIRRAL BUS ROUTES
    Wirral Globe 29 Aug "Seven Wirral bus routes will be axed this weekend following Merseytravel review".


  • August 30 - DELUSIONS THIRTEEN
    L'pool Echo 29 Aug "Travel from Liverpool to London in 30 MINUTES with futuristic 'hyperloop'".


  • August 28 - ROADWORKS DRAG ON
    L'pool Echo 27 Aug "More road misery as Great Howard Street project delayed AGAIN".
    There would be none of these problems if the Council had gone ahead with the high level inner motorway. Plans for this were developed by Liverpool City Council in the 1960, and the scheme came under Merseyside County Council from 1974. After almost the land had been acquired and cleared, the anti roads brigade led by the 'Liberals' succeeded in killing the scheme and it was abandoned about 1980. CBRD "Liverpool Inner Motorway".


  • August 26 - DISASTER DAY LOOMS
    The bridge trolls have announced that the Mersey Gateway will open in about three weeks. The local news media as usual repeat the PR handouts and think that this is a cause for celebration instead of the major blow that it really is. There is more about this on our Mersey Gateway News page.


  • August 26 - MORE IDIOTIC POLICIES
    The Government is to trial "lorry platooning (which) could benefit businesses through cheaper fuel bills and other road users thanks to lower emissions and less congestion" - BBC 25 Aug "'Self-driving' lorries to be tested on UK roads".


  • August 26 - TUNNEL CHASE
    Echo 24 Aug "High-speed car chase through Wallasey tunnel leads to arrest of three males".
    When they exited at Wallasey did all they all stop to pay their tolls?


  • August 26 - MILLIONS WASTED ON GREEN BRIDGE
    The politicians have wasted over £40 million on a bridge whose main feature was that drivers would not be allowed to use it BBC 14 Aug "London's Garden Bridge project officially abandoned".


  • August 26 - OVER THE SEA WITH NO TOLLS
    BBC 9 Aug "Does the Isle of Skye have too many tourists?".
    The BBC do not mention that the island is so popular with tourists and newcomers because the tolls were lifted at the end of 2004. Here is an earlier report - BBC 16 Oct 2015 "The bridge that changed the Isle of Skye".


  • August 14 - GATEWAY TOLLS PROTEST DAY
    Todays' protest - on our Gateway News page


  • August 11 - TOLLS PROTEST
    There is to be a protest against the tolls the bridges between Runcorn and Widnes. The protest will be on Monday 14 August 2017 from 7.30am To 9.30am. the protest will be at the Widnes end of the SJB, near Irwell Street, West Bank WA8 0EP.
    Runcorn & Widnes World 2 Aug "Protest organised to persuade Government to scrap bridge tolls".


  • August 6 - DECISION TO AXE SOME WIRRAL BUS ROUTES
    Globe 3 August "Seven Wirral bus routes axed following Merseytravel review".


  • August 6 - BANKSTER NUMBER ONE USES BREXIT AS EXCUSE FOR MAKING POUND WORTH-LESS
    BBC 3 August "Carney warns Brexit uncertainty is building".


  • July 30 - DELUSIONS TWELVE
    Echo 20 July "13 ambitious ideas to make Wirral a better place to live and work".
    The Echo's idea number one is "Electrify the Bidston-Wrexham train line". That would have no effect on the 99.9% of people on the Wirral who will never use the line. And there will be virtually no effect on the 0.1% who do as it is only our green (naive) politicians, and Merseytravel rail fanatics who are clamouring for an electric train set. Echo idea number two is another train station, and their idea number four is spending even more money at Woodside Ferry terminal. It seems that Merseytravel has a lot of influence in deciding what is good for the Wirral and what appears in the local news media.
    One comment (from Deggsyr) is "Remove the road tolls that have isolated Wirral from the rest of Merseyside". There is little chance of our local councillors or the Echo paying any attention to that.


  • July 30 - MORE SUBSIDIES FOR BICYCLES THAT ARE NOT USED
    Echo 28 July - "Citybike to expand into other boroughs - but some stations will be removed".


  • July 30 - MAD MINISTERS PLAN TO BAN PETROL AND DIESEL CARS
    BBC 26 July - "Diesel and petrol car ban: Clean air strategy 'not enough'"   Govt 26 July - "Plan for roadside NO2 concentrations published".
    Another example of the absolute and unbelievable stupidity of politicians. Most pollution does not come from cars and even if it did then replacing petrol and diesel engines with electric batteries will make little difference as at the margin any additional use of electricity will have to come from burning fossil fuels.
    Reaction from a group that speaks up for motorists - ABD 27 July - "Diesel and Petrol Car Demonisation Scientifically Unjustifiable says ABD".


  • July 30 - LONDONERS COMPLAIN ABOUT MAYOR'S PLAN TO ATTACK DRIVERS
    Fair Deal for the Motorist - "“NO KHAN DO!!! - IT’S HIGHWAY ROBBERY!".


  • July 30 - NORTHERN RAIL FANATICS COMPLAIN THAT THEY ARE NOT BEING GIVEN AS MUCH MONEY AS LONDON
    BBC 25 July "Crossrail 2: Support by government 'outrageous' after northern snub".
    Perhaps the money pit is not bottomless? In any case, trains and other mass transit systems are only viable where people and where they work are crammed together, do we really want that in our region?


  • July 30 - BUS LANE CHAOS
    Echo 24 July "Strand gridlocked again as motorists avoid bus lane they ARE allowed to use".
    Mayor Joe Anderson was brave enough to defy the anti car establishment and rid Liverpool of most of its bus lanes. One that he kept was the bus lane on the approach to the Liverpool One bus station. A bit odd as most of the time motorists would not want or need to be in that lane. But still daft because as with most bus lanes most of the time it is empty - as you can see from the picture.


  • July 30 - BREXIT THREAT TO ABBATOIRS
    BBC 25 July "Brexit: UK 'overwhelmingly reliant' on abattoir vets from EU".
    What a pity that the headline is not "BREXIT A THREAT TO TUNNEL TOLLS".


  • July 24 - OFFICIAL INFLATION IS SHRINKPROOF
    We know that the Government lies about the extent of inflation, here is one possible way that they might be doing it BBC 24 July "More than 2,500 products subject to shrinkflation, says ONS".


  • July 24 - A BIT LESS OF THE UPPER CLASS
    BBC 22 July "First class could be cut on busy trains, says Grayling".
    You would wonder why it has taken so long to come up with this sensible idea. On Merseyside, first class was removed from local trains in the early 1970s. As you might guess this was done when the trains were run by British Rail rather than the Merseytravel establishment who would probably like to introduce VIP trains in case any royals happened by.


  • July 24 - REMOVAL OF SEVERN TOLLS - LOCAL COVERAGE
    Echo 22 July "Why do we have to pay tunnel tolls - when Severn crossing charges are being axed?"   Click L'pool 23 July "Fresh calls to scrap 'rip-off' Mersey tunnel tolls".
    Surprisingly there is no comment from Merseytravel saying how this area is different from the Severn and how we should all bow down deeply to them in gratitude for their dedicated care of the Tunnels.


  • July 24 - GOVERNMENT CONFIRMS THAT SEVERN TOLLS ARE TO GO
    BBC 21 July "Severn tolls abolished by end of 2018, says Alun Cairns"   Govt 21 July "Drivers to benefit from free Severn crossings from 2018"   Wales Online 21 July "Severn Crossing tolls will be scrapped in 2018" comments   Herald (Plymouth) 21 July "Severn Bridge tolls to be scrapped, should the Tamar bridge be free too?".


    July 24 - MERSEYTRAVEL REACTION TO COLUMNIST WHO DARED TO DISAGREE WITH THEIR PLAN TO REMOVE TRAIN GUARDS
    Globe 21 July "Merseyside travel chiefs hit back at Globe columnist's 'keep the guards' article".


  • July 24 - ROAD 'WORKS'
    Echo 20 July "Here's why Mersey tunnel and Liverpool city centre traffic was gridlocked this morning".


  • July 24 - DELUSIONS ELEVEN
    The Echo wants more trains and trams to ferry people on a merry go round - Echo 20 July "How proper mass transit can make a great city even better".


  • July 24 - MORE ON OUR 'MOST RELIABLE' TRAINS
    Echo 19 July "Travel chaos as Wirral loop line shut by Merseyrail over "track fault on riverbed"".


  • July 24 - AND MORE SPENDING ON RAIL
    Govt 17 July "Huge economic boost for the north of England as Transport Secretary confirms HS2 routes".


  • July 16 - MORE SPENDING ON RAIL
    Globe 14 July "Work underway on ‘Halton Curve’ to boost rail links from Liverpool to North Wales"   Echo 14 July "Work starts on 'Halton Curve' rail link from Liverpool to North Wales".
    If they really wanted to improve links then they would build a fly-over at the Two Mills junction of the A540 and A550 and restart the abandoned scheme to widen the A494 / 550 where it crosses the Dee by Queensferry. They will not do this because they are anti roads and pro trains.


    July 16 - ANOTHER CHARITY CYCLE RIDE?
    Echo 14 July "Nightriders cycle across the Mersey for charity".
    Yet again one of the Tunnels is closed so that it can be used by cyclists. It is claimed that this closure alone raised £140,000 for charity. It would be interesting to see how this figure was calculated and whether anyone else is making money from these closures.


  • July 16 - QUARTER OF A MILLION BOUNTY AWARDED FOR HIGHWAY ROBBERY SCAM
    BBC 13 July "Travel tax plan wins £250,000 Wolfson Economics Prize"   Copy of the plan at Policy Exchange.
    You might wonder how anyone could win so much money for such a daft idea as tolling all roads (though the word 'toll' is carefully avoided). The answer is that this is just the sort of scam that those who control this country would like to implement. This includes Policy Exchange, the right wing think tank that organised the prize, Lord Wolfson who provided the money, Alistair Darling, who was one of the judges and who when he was Transport Secretary tried to introduce an almost identical scam, and the RAC Foundation who aided the prize winner and have been backing tolls for a long time.


  • July 16 - TUNNEL TO CLOSE FOR DERBY GAME
    Globe 13 July "Birkenhead Tunnel night closures for essential maintenance this week".


  • July 16 - ASK A SILLY QUESTION
    Echo 9 July "Why have the Mersey tunnels got different speed limits?".
    The Echo also asked "why aren’t you allowed to change lane?" The Echo then says "This answer was pretty much just common sense. A spokesperson from Merseytravel told the ECHO: “The reason you aren’t allowed to change lane is because of traffic management.”". This answer may be common-sense to the Echo, but it is NON-sense to everyone else.
    The story has a link to a previous Echo story about the tolls. This is another chsnce for you to see more NON-sense from Merseytravel.


  • July 16 - NOT SO RELIABLE TRAINS
    Globe 10 July "Strike action today in dispute over Merseyrail's plan for driver-only trains".


  • July 8 - 'MOST RELIABLE' TRAINS
    Echo 7 July "Merseyrail 'has most reliable trains in Britain' new figures show".
    As one of the comments points out, the local train service may seem to do well because the trains travel slowly allowing a margin for delays in the 'Dutchrail' timetables.


  • July 8 - MORE NONSENSE FROM THE ARCH-THIEVES
    Govt 5 July "Government launches transport investment plan for Britain".
    The Government should stop making road spending announcements every other week and instead spend a lot more of the billion pounds a week that it gets from drivers on improving the roads and removing tolls.


  • July 8 - TUNNEL CLOSED FOR CYCLISTS
    Chester Chronicle 4 July "More than 3,000 cyclists take part in Liverpool Chester Liverpool Bike Ride"   Echo 29 June "Thousands to take part in Liverpool Chester Liverpool Bike Ride this weekend".


  • July 8 - TUNNELS TRYING TO SAVE ON LIGHTING BILL
    Echo 1 July "Why are there loads of solar panels in this Liverpool road?".
    Unfortunately any savings will only go towards Merseytravel's profits.


  • June 30 - ANOTHER DROP IN THE OCEAN COMPARED WITH THE GRAND THEFT FROM DRIVERS
    Govt 30 June "Government publishes £6.1 billion programme of upgrades to major roads and motorways".
    The Government are crowing about all the money they are spending, but added to previous announcements it means that they are spending about £21 billion spread over six years. During the same period they will take over £600 billion from drivers.
    And the only scheme announced for this area is a new junction 11a on the M56 - a scheme designed to attract customers for their new toll bridge between Runcorn and Widnes.


  • June 30 - BIRKENHEAD DOCK BRANCH
    Echo 24 June "There's a CLOSED Mersey Tunnel - and we've had a look inside".
    Merseytravel would love to shut down the whole of the Birkenhead tunnel, but they are still trying to figure out how they could do that and still get their loot from drivers!!!


  • June 30 - MORE CUSTOMERS
    BBC 22 June "UK population rise of 538,000 is biggest for 70 years".
    538,000 is more than the 470,000 population of Liverpool. This growth in population makes the roads more crowded and makes it harder to buy or rent a home, but those in charge don't care because it means they can pay lower wages and have more customers for their 'businesses' including the Tunnels.


  • June 30 - MORE ON PROPOSAL TO AXE SOME SUBSIDISED WIRRAL BUS ROUTES
    Globe 22 June "Wirral community leaders speak out about plans to axe bus routes in Merseytravel review".


  • June 20 - LOOP LINE WORK FINISHED
    Echo 16 June "Wirral loop line to re-open on Monday after six months of disruption".
    Strange how people coped "with no trains at all between Wirral and Liverpool for much of the project." Despite this Merseytravel takes millions of Tunnel tolls to spend them on their train set.


  • June 20 - DELUSIONS TEN
    Globe 19 June "Cabinet approves strategy for Wirral tourism boost".
    Wirral councillors are so blind that they do not see that one of the main negatives for tourists is having to pay tolls.


  • June 20 - PROPOSAL TO AXE SOME SUBSIDISED WIRRAL BUS ROUTES
    Globe 13 June "Eight Wirral bus routes face the axe after Merseytravel review" comments.
    Most of Merseyside has already had bus cuts, now it is the turn of the Wirral. Possibly there are not enough users to justify these services, but the main problem is that Merseytravel is run by rail fanatics who pour almost all the money that they can get from Council tax, Tunnel tolls and the Government into train services.


  • June 20 - OFFICIAL INFLATION ACCELERATING
    BBC 13 June "UK inflation rate at near four-year high".
    Governments lie about the real level of inflation, but the RPI which governs the maximum Tunnels tolls is now officially up by 3.7% over 12 months.


  • June 9 - GENERAL ELECTION 12 - WIN FOR JEREMY CORBYN
    BBC -General Election 2017: Results
    Labour doing so well compared with the dire forecasts is down to just one person - Jeremy Corbyn. Unfortunately 90% of the Labour MPs who have been elected on his coat tails could just as easily be in the Tory party. Angela Eagle is one of the local Labour MPs who have done well, despite the fact that she is a big supporter of tolls and is unwanted by most of the Labour activists in Wallasey and despite it being one of the few local seats where there was a UKIP candidate. Perhaps Angela's success is proof of how poorly voters are informed by the local news media.

    In our region, Labour won two seats from the Tories - Weaver Vale (which includes part of Runcorn) and Warrington South. These two scalps could be because the Tory government reneged on the 2015 election promises of no tolls for those areas. Though the Tories did manage to gain Southport from the Lib Dems.

    The result will have no effect on Mersey Tunnel tolls or Mersey Gateway tolls as local Labour councillors and MPs will continue to conspire with the Tory Government to rip off drivers in this region.

    Nationally it will be interesting to see what happens with the tolls on the Severn Crossing as all the main parties promised to scrap those tolls.


  • June 9 - DELUSIONS NINE
    Echo 6 June "Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram wants multi-billion pound Mersey barrage".
    It seems that when politicians get involved with Merseytravel / City Region they leave their common sense at the door and fall for the carnie tricksters.


  • June 9 - DELUSIONS EIGHT
    Echo 6 June "The Great Merseyside Survey 2017 - what is life like in our region and what needs to improve?".
    As you might guess it does not occur to the Echo that people might see getting rid of tolls as an improvement.


  • June 9 - BIRKENHEAD TUNNEL NEARS COMPLETION
    Globe 5 June "VIDEO: Historic footage shows finishing touches to Birkenhead tunnel in 1934" (inc short video).
    One of the comments points out that it is a myth that the Tunnel opened in 1934 - "As usual the myth is perpetuated that because someone with a crown came from London in July 1934 to cut a ribbon, then that must be when the Birkenhead Tunnel came into use. The truth is that the Tunnel was opened for the plebs to use in 1933 - on 17 December."


  • June 9 - DELUSIONS SEVEN
    Echo 3 June "Would you like to see an opera house in Birkenhead?" comments.


  • June 9 - TYNE TUNNEL TOLLS PROTEST
    Shields Gazette 2 June "South Shields parliamentary candidate in Tyne Tunnel protest".


  • June 3 - GENERAL ELECTION 11 - WHAT ELECTION?
    The local news media have almost totally ignored the General Election and ignored local issues. Perhaps this is a sign that there is no point in voting?
    The Echo have however reported on Wirral West which is the most marginal seat on Merseyside. None of the candidates there want to talk about tolls and the Echo seems happy to play their game - Echo 30 May "General Election 2017: The battle for crucial swing seat Wirral West"


  • June 3 - ATTACK AFTER TOLL BOOTH ROW
    Echo 30 May "White van man rams taxi driver off the road after being called 'big wet lettuce'"


  • June 3 - BULLETPROOF MERSEYTRAVEL NOT BLAMED FOR FERRY ACCIDENT
    Echo 30 May "Revealed: why Mersey ferry Royal Iris ran aground"


  • June 3 - UPDATE ON WIRRAL TRAINS NOT CROSSING THE MERSEY
    Closure runs from Tuesday May 30 to Sunday June 18.
    Echo 29 May "Final phase of Wirral track renewal works gets underway this week"   Globe 29 May "Work to begin on final phase of Wirral loop line track renewal".


  • May 28 - GENERAL ELECTION 10 - VOTE ON THE ISSUES
    The Globe poll on the issues that people were interested in seems to have gone nowhere. 'Tunnel tolls' was neck and neck with the 'Future of the NHS', with tolls getrting 26% and the NHS 24%, next was Brexit on 15%.


  • May 28 - GENERAL ELECTION 9 - TWO MORE MANIFESTOS
    The Greens and UKIP were late publishing their manifestos. The Greens say nothing about tolls. UKIP say "Tolling increases costs to business and the public, and adds an additional unfair burden on the already highly taxed road user. Road tolls are modern-day highway robbery, and UKIP will aim to remove existing tolls from publicly owned roads and block the introduction of new toll roads."
    Green 2017 manifesto (pdf)   UKIP 2017 manifesto.


  • May 19 - GENERAL ELECTION 8 - CHANCE TO VOTE ON THE ISSUES
    Globe 18 May "VOTE: What matters most to Wirral residents ahead of June's General Election?".


  • May 19 - GENERAL ELECTION 7 - MORE ON PROMISES THAT SEVERN TOLLS WILL BE SCRAPPED or NOW YOU SEE IT NOW YOU DON'T
    The Labour manifesto says - "We will work with the Welsh Government to scrap the tolls on the Severn Bridge."
    The Lib Dem manifesto say - "To help create jobs and boost growth in Wales we will abolish the economically distorting tolls on the Severn Bridge, after the costs have been recouped in 2018."
    The Conservative manifesto which was only made public today says - NOTHING!!!!

    The Severn tolls concession and the tolls were due to end early in 2018 anyway, but prior to the press release the Government plan was to keep the tolls in the form of 'road user charges' (at about half the rate of the current tolls).
    The absence of the Severn Crossing pledge from the manifesto seems as if it may be a rerun of the similar pledges that the Conservatives made prior to the 2015 General Election about the Tunnel tolls and the Gateway tolls. After the election the pledges were either ignored or withdrawn. So this may happen with this latest pledge from the PM.

    Some more of the stories about the Severn tolls pledge - Bristol Post 16 May "Labour and Tories both promise to scrap tolls on Severn Bridge"   Daily Mail 16 May "Tories pledge to SCRAP the tolls on the Severn Bridges if they win on June 8 to boost the regional economy by £100m"   Free Press (Monmouth) 16 May "GENERAL ELECTION 2017: 'We will abolish Severn Bridge tolls' - Theresa May" LOTS of comments   Abergavenny Chronicle (Monmouth) 16 May "Theresa May promises to cut Severn Bridge tolls if re-elected on June 8".


  • May 19 - GENERAL ELECTION 6 - THREE OF THE MANIFESTOS
    The Labour and Lib Dem manifestos say that they will scrap Severn tolls. The Tories say nothing about any tolls. UKIP anf the Greens have not yet published their manifestos.
    Lib Dem 2017 manifesto (pdf)   Labour 2017 manifesto (pdf)   Tory 2017 manifesto (pdf).


  • May 19 - WIRRAL TRAINS NOT CROSSING THE MERSEY
    The closure runs from Tuesday May 30 to Sunday June 18.
    Echo 18 May "Wirral Loop Line work begins again - all you need to know as MAJOR disruption is on the way"   Globe 19 May "Work set to begin on final phase of Liverpool loop line track renewal".


  • May 19 - ELECTIONS AND TOLLS - WILL TURKEYS VOTE FOR XMAS?
    Our letter in the Wirral Globe -Globe 17 May "Help stop tunnel toll profiteering".


  • May 19 - TROLLS COMPLAIN ABOUT PROPOSAL TO SHARE THE TOLLS TAG WAVE BAND
    Smart Highways 17 May "ITS (UK) responds to Ofcom consultation on 5.8GHz".


  • May 17 - GENERAL ELECTION 5 - PROMISES THAT SEVERN TOLLS WILL BE SCRAPPED
    This week the Conservatives issued a press release in which the Prime Minister says that if reelected her Government in 2018 would remove the tolls on the Severn Crossing. She also said: “By abolishing tolls for 25 million annual journeys between two nations we will strengthen the links between communities .. and .. drive economic growth right across the country helping key economic centres in Cardiff, Bath, Bristol and Newport.”
    This means that now almost all the parties (Labour, Tories, UKIP and Lib Dems) say that they would scrap the Severn tolls.
    BBC 16 May "Severn tolls: Conservative election pledge to scrap charges" comments   Telegraph 16 May "Theresa May pledges to scrap Severn Bridge tolls"   Motoring Research 16 May "What does the Labour manifesto mean for motorists?"   Wales Online 16 May "Theresa May pledges to abolish tolls on Severn Crossings between Wales and England" comments.
    Given that both local Labour and the national Tories went back on their promises about Mersey tolls before the 2015 General Election perhaps these promises are not worth much. Except that the people of Wales are not sheep, and unlike Merseyside it is likely that the Welsh papers and people will make sure that the new Governmnt keeps this promise.


  • May 17 - TRAIN STRIKE ON 30 MAY
    Globe 17 May "Third day of strike action in dispute over Merseyrail's driver-only trains".


  • May 17 - INFLATION UP
    The RPI which limits the maximum Tunnel tolls continues to rise and is now 3.5% up yaer on year BBC 16 May "UK inflation rate at highest level since September 2013".


  • May 17 - GENERAL ELECTION 4 - THE TROLL SUPPORTERS IN THE BLUE CORNER
    Globe 12 May "Transport Secretary Chris Graying joins Wirral West Tory hopeful on campaign trail".
    One comments says "Have people forgotten the promises made by the Tories before the last election? They said that they would reduce and possibly scrap the Tunnel tolls. All that they really did after the election was make a deal with Labour that Merseytravel would be allowed to keep making a big profit from the tunnels and could spend it as they liked. From what he did and did not say in his Mayoral election campaign it seems that Tony Caldeira is also quite happy for the users of the Tunnels to be milked. So it is fitting that he has been photographed with the Tory Transport secretary."


  • May 17 - GENERAL ELECTION 3 - THE RUNNERS
    The nominated candidates for seats in the City Region - Echo 11 May "General Election 2017: who is standing for election in YOUR area revealed".
    Not an inspiring collection. The only party that definitely opposes tolls is UKIP and they have few candidates. The candidastes for the other parties have either made it clear that they do not care about the highways robbery of Tunnels tolls or their views are not yet known.


  • May 6 - GENERAL ELECTION 2 - TORIES NOMINATE A TOLL BELIEVER
    Local Conservatives have chosen Tony Caldeira as their candidate for Wirral West - Echo 4 May "Wirral West Conservative candidate named for general election".
    He was also the Tory candidate for Liverpool Region Mayor and it would seem that he knew he would lose. Esther McVey the previous Tory MP for Wirral West, took a strong interest in the tolls, but this Liverpool businessman did not mention tolls in his election address or leaflets and it is clear that he does not care about tolls and would turn a blind eye to the Merseytravel profits.


  • May 6 - MAYORAL ELECTION
    Yesterday we had the count and result following the election on Thursday. As everyone expected, the winner was Steve Rotheram - Echo 5 May "Labour Party's Steve Rotheram elected Liverpool City Region mayor - full breakdown of vote" some comments   Detailed results at Liverpool City Region website.

    It was disappointing that the two candidates (TUSC and UKIP) who might have stopped Merseytravel from profiting from the Tunnels got less than 7% betweeen them. Most of the local news media did nothing to make the tolls an issue amd there was some disinformation, for instance Wikipedia had the laughable claim that the Lib Dem candidate would 'remove tunnel tolls'.

    The share of the votes was Steve Rotheram for Labour got 59.3%, Tony Caldeira for the Tories got 20.4%, Carl Cashman for the Lib Dems got 6.8%, Tom Crone for the Greens got 4.9%, Paula Walters for UKIP got 4.1%, Roger Bannister for Trade Union and Socialist Coalition got 2.7%, Tabitha Morton for Woman's Equality Party got 1.5% and Paul Breen for Get the Coppers off the Jury got 0.25%.

    As the turnout was 25.9%, less than one in six of the electorate voted for the 'winner'. The Echo published a story on election day that seems to confirm that no one cared - Echo 4 May "We asked people if they voted today - what do you think they said?" lots of comments.


  • May 6 - PETITION TOTAL
    The petition to "Remove all tolls from the River Mersey" closed on the 3rd because of the dissolution of Parliament. It had got 5,543 signatures. The full text of the petition was- "The River Mersey will end up with 2 bridges and x2 tunnels that will be tolled in the next 12 months. The cost of the build, upkeep and repair of these huge national infrastructures have been given to the people of Merseyside. Who pays for the upkeep of the bridges & tunnels of The River Thames.
    The bridges & tunnels are part of the national infrastructure and should not be the responsibility of the people of Merseyside in the same way the bridge to Skye is not theirs to pay for, the Bridges of The Thames are not purely for the people of London. there are many roads, bridges & tunnels that are paid for nationally including the upkeep, I feel the same should be done on Merseyside."

  • May 6 - DIESEL BACKTRACK
    Politicians encouraged the use of diesel cars to save the planet from the pollution of CO2 (though there can be no life without CO2). Though diesel engines are a bit nore efficent than petrol engines they produce more of some real pollutants. These pollutants are causing emission limits in the atmosphere to be exceeded, and the Government are now considering an expensive change of policy - BBC 5 May "Air quality: Diesel scrappage scheme being considered".
    .

  • May 2 - MAYORAL ELECTION
    The MTUA have sent out a couple of press releases about the Mayoral election, the local news media have ignored them, so here is the latest - MTUA press release of 30 April.
    PS. After we wrote this John McGoldrick, one of our spokesmen, did a video interview for Made in Liverpool which was aired later in the day and may also have been used by BBC North West.

    The Echo asked people about the Mayoral election and found out that people knew little about it - surprise, surprise - Echo 1 May "We asked people if they could name the Metro Mayor candidates - this is how they did".   One comment is "The echo seems to be surprised no-one knows much about this election but as I look through the site I can't seem to find any information about the candidates and what they stand for. I would have thought a local news outlet would actually be able to provide this information before then criticising people for not knowing it. Best I can find is a list of candidates with no further info..."


  • April 30 - MORE ON CITY MAYOR ELECTION
    BBC Politics North West today (video on BBC iplayer) covered the Mayoral election. The coverage starts at 37 mins 35 secs. There was some mention of the tolls, and in particular from 55 minutes into the clip. Steve Rotheram for Labour had declined to take part, and the 'Get The Coppers Off The Jury' candidate also was not there. The 'Trade Union and Socialist Coalition' candidate and the UKIP candidate made it clear that they opposed tolls on the Tunnels and the Mersey Gateway and existing Runcorn bridges and would try to scrap them.
    The other four indicated that they would keep the tolls and by implication would do nothing to stop Merseytravel from using the Tunnels as a cash cow. The Lib Dem candidate in his online manifesto says "I will ...Reduce the Mersey tunnel tolls for commuters to and from the Wirral and lobby government to make the tunnel tolls free like that of London." but in the debate it seemed that his main plan was to make tolls payable by use of the 'Walrus' card. The Green candidate would reduce tolls off peak, but increase them during peak periods. The Woman's Equality candidate wanted tolls to be spent on transport servics that would benefit women. The Tory candiadte seemed to be most concerned about Merseytravel having plenty of money without raising taxes, he obviously did not see that the tolls are a tax.

    Yesterday UKIP had an anti tolls protest at the Runcorn / Widnes bridge. They also had a protest at the Mersey Tunnels on the 27 March, which even we did not know about. It seems that UKIP or tolls or both are subjects that the local news media prefer to ignore. Or do they think that no one is interested?


  • April 30 - MYSTERY ACCIDENT
    Echo 29 April "Part of Wallasey Tunnel SHUT after "police incident" sparking traffic chaos".


  • April 30 - HOW LONG?
    Echo 28 April "When will the Edge Lane roadworks finish? Delays extended even further".
    The simple answer is that drivers are third class citizens and they count for nothing compared with developers of moree shops etc.


  • April 25 - MORE ON CITY MAYOR ELECTION
    # The Returning Officer has recently sent to all electors a booklet which includes election addresses from seven of the eight candidates. Only two candidates use the 't' word.
      Roger Bannister the 'Trade Union and Socialist Coalition' candidate says that using "profits from local public transport" to cut tolls is a possibility. It is not clear what this means, as currently the only profits that Merseytravel makes is from the Tunnels and they are using those profits to fund their other schemes.
      Paula Walters for UKIP says that she is "in support of UKIP's long standing drive to scrap .. charges for using the Mersey Tunnel, the Runcorn/Widnes bridge and the new Mersey Gateway bridge ... our bridges and tunnels should be ... part of the road network and (financed) through the taxes that we already pay".

    # Though there is nothing about tolls in Steve Rotheram's election address, his office have sent us a copy of his 27 page manifesto.
    There are three mentions of toll. Under 'Connected' he says on page 21 "... we are the only City Region in Europe where in the future all cross-river traffic movements will be subject to expensive tolls ....... We also need to ensure that our river ceases to be a barrier to movement and commerce and find imaginative and sustainable ways to alleviate the burden of tolls.”
    And on page 22 he says "We are the only City Region in Europe where there will be no free cross-river road routes for residents and businesses. We need to be more flexible and creative in finding ways to remove burdens and barriers to travel and support business growth and ease of movement. This will include plans for a reduction in the fast-tag tunnel fare to £1 and lobbying Government to review the unfair and detrimental impact of current tolling proposals for the Mersey Gateway Bridge."
    Reducing the Tag toll from £1.20 but leaving the cash toll at £1.70 would leave Merseytravel still making a vast profit at the expense of users of the Tunnels and we have again written to Steve Rotheram asking what he would do about that.


  • April 25 - MORE OF SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
    Though the Government can't spare a penny to help users of the Tunnels they are to give £1.2 billion pounds to cyclists and walkers (which probably means nearly all of the spending going to the cycling lobby) DfT 21 April "Government publishes £1.2 billion plan to increase cycling and walking".


  • April 21 - GENERAL ELECTION 1
    On the 19th, the Commons approved the Prime Minister's call for a Parliamentary General Election on Thursday 8 June. It would be nice to think that tolls will be an election issue, but given public apathy and the influence that the trolls have over the news media, it seem most unlikely that this election will have any effect on the looting of drivers by Merseytravel and the Liverpool City Region.


  • April 21 - CITY MAYOR ELECTION
    A weeks ago the MTUA contacted all the candidates for Mayor of the Liverpool City Region. We asked for their position on Mersey Tunnels tolls and in particular what they would do about the profits that are made from Tunnels tolls and spent on other things. Only the UKIP candidate - Paula Walters - answered. She said - "I have been campaigning for three years to scrap the tunnel tolls, it comes at the top of my priorities. The loan will not be paid off for years as the money is diverted elsewhere. I am concerned that when the Gateway bridge is open the Runcorn bridge toll will be £2 and our tunnel fee will probably rise in line. If elected I would make the tunnel and Runcorn bridge free...."
    We must assume that the other candidates would not only keep the tolls but would continue to use them as a source of cash to subsidise other Merseytravel schemes.


  • April 21 - DESTROYING BRIDGES
    L'pool Echo 20 April "Landmark Wirral bridge cut up and lifted away".
    The Echo says that the work is being done for the benefit of drivers. As drivers are usually seen as nothing more than a cash source, it seems more likely that this is being done for the benefit of Peel who seem to own large chunks of Merseyside.


  • April 21 - TUNNELS ARE CASH FREE - OR SO THE ECHO SEEMS TO THINK
    The Echo writes about the new coin and does not mention what must be the biggest one armed bandit / slot machine in the region L'pool Echo 18 April "Can I use the new pound coin in parking meters, vending machines and trolleys?".


  • April 21 - EVEN THE SHOPS ARE CLOSING
    L'pool Echo 17 April "Forty-three shops closed their doors in Liverpool city centre last year".
    This region has little real industry and is dominated by speculators and spivs who use dirt cheap money to build shops, houses and student accommodation. Though even dirt cheap money is no use if you are left with empty property.


    April 21 - TOLLS DON'T MATTER
    At least they don't get a mention - L'pool Echo 16 April "Five reasons you SHOULD be bothered about next month's Metro Mayor election".


    April 21 - VERY LATE APRIL FOOL
    L'pool Echo 14 April "Imaginary bridge between Liverpool and Isle of Man included in engineering textbook".


  • April 14 - GOVERNMENT GIVES PROOF OF ITS STUPIDITY
    BBC 12 April "Lower Thames Crossing route between Kent and Essex revealed"   DfT 12 April "New Lower Thames Crossing to cut congestion and create thousands of jobs"   Highways England 12 April "New crossing to provide transport and jobs stimulus".
    There is the usual deceipt of not mentioning that the crossing will be tolled and thus the benefit of it will be reduced. It is odd that the crossing will be tunnels rather than a bridge. One of the reasons that they need a new crossing is because the four lanes of tunnels at the existing crossing can not take as much traffic as the four lanes of bridge going in the other direction, because tunnels have a lower speed limit.


  • April 14 - DROPS IN THE OCEAN
    The Government collects over one billion pounds every week from drivers, spends almost nothing on the roads and then seeks mammoth publicity about its miniscule spending. Switch Island is a good example of the inadequate spending, every now and then they waste some money on small schemes when what is obviously needed is a multi level junction - DfT 6 April "Bidding opens for £490 million road funding"   DfT 7 April "£3 million to improve journeys and safety at Switch Island".


  • April 14 - SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
    DfT 11 April "Major M5 repair work (on Oldbury viaduct)to start"   DfT 11 April "Over £109 million of funding for driverless and low carbon projects"   BBC 5 April "PM hints at help for diesel car owners over 'toxin tax'".


  • April 14 - BUS FARES RISE
    The good news is that the expensive cross river fare is frozen - Echo 3 April "Liverpool bus fares go up - catching out many commuters".


  • April 14 - MAYORAL ELECTION
    BBC 5 April "Liverpool City Region mayoral election: Candidates spell out key policies"   ITV 29 March "UKIP announce candidate for Liverpool City Region Mayor".
    Only two candidates mention tolls. Steve Rotherham for Labour says that he will cut the Tag toll. This implies that he will leave the cash toll at £1.70, there are also reports that he intends to use Tunnel tolls to fund various non Tunnels projects.
    Paula Walters says that UKIP want to scrap tolls. There is little chance of that, but if elected she might stop the use of the Tunnels as a cash cow.


  • April 14 - LIVERPOOL RUSHES IN TO HELP EVERTON
    Echo 31 March "Everton stadium: Mayor says 'We're not just funding a billionaire'".
    The gullible Echo tells its readers that the City Council will actually make money for taking the risk though the Echo say not to worry because there is no risk! Councils on Merseyside seem to be a pushover for developers.


  • April 14 - REPORT FROM THE THIEVES AT ANOTHER CROSSING
    The Government charge tolls where the M25 crosses the Thames at Dartford. The law under which the crossing was built said the tolls should have stopped by 2003, but tolls are still being charged and since they went cashless there are now also heavy fines. The Government have now published the accounts for 2015-16 which is the first full year since the fines were introduced.
    The cost of collecting the tolls and maintaining the crossing was £78 million, the tolls were £108 million and the fines were £53 million. They only expect to collect half the fines, but even so their ill gotten gain is £57 million.
    Highways England 29 March "Dartford-Thurrock river crossing charging scheme Accounts 2015 - 2016" pdf.


  • April 14 - EARLY APRIL FOOL
    The Echo putting its telescope to its blind eye finds 46 irritations without mentioning the Tunnels - Echo 25 March "46 things that mildly irritate everyone in Liverpool".


  • April 14 - DELUSIONS SIX
    Echo 14 March "Baltic Triangle and Liverpool's North Docks named Britain's coolest places to live".


  • March 11 - DELUSIONS FIVE
    Echo 10 March "Fast, efficient public transport shouldn't be the stuff of fantasy".


  • March 9 - BUDGET? WHAT BUDGET?
    Yesterday Philip Hammond presented his budget to the Commons. There were almost no significant changes to spending or taxes and the Government is still going further into the red.
    Fuel duty remains at 57.95 pence. There was a threat that diesel engined vehicles would pay higher taxes, but for now there is no change and owners of existing diesel engined cars continue to pay, on average, less Vehicle Excise Duty than the owners of petrol engined cars.
    There is to be an extra £700 million to be spent on reducing congestion in urban areas. This is a drop in the ocean, and based on previous government initatives almost none of this money will be spent on actually improving roads.


  • March 9 - MERSEY INVASION?
    There have been recent reports about military transport planes and helicopters circling around the Wirral and Mersey area, here is the latest - Echo 7 March "Fishermen on Crosby beach shocked to see Hercules flying low over River Mersey".


  • March 7 - POSSIBLE BUS CUTS
    Echo 6 March "Soccerbus could be AXED under major shake-up of Liverpool bus routes".


  • March 7 - DELUSIONS FOUR
    Echo 6 March "The ambitious Liverpool transport schemes that never saw the light of day - and one that might".


  • March 7 - GOVERNMENT UP TO THEIR USUAL TRICKS
    The Government have been caught hiding the pollution at the Dartford toll crossing by pretending that where the M25 crosses the Thames it is a 'rural' road and so they don't have to report on the air pollution there - Kent Online 6 March "Dartford Crossing not included in assessments of air quality as it was wrongly classed as rural" comments   BBC 6 March "Dartford Crossing excluded from pollution assessments".


  • March 7 - WIRRAL BUDGET AGREED INCLUDING NEW PARKING CHARGES
    Wirral Globe 6 March "Five per cent council tax rise on its way for Wirral householders as Labour budget approved".


  • March 7 - FRENCH TAKE OVER THE VAUXHALL PLANT AT ELLESMERE PORT
    Chester Chronicle 6 March "Vauxhall Ellesmere Port future: Analysing the PSA sale as French car giants step in".


  • March 7 - DELUSIONS THREE
    Echo 6 March "Underground train could go from Liverpool to Manchester in SEVEN minutes"   Echo 6 March "Pigs might fly - readers don't think superfast underground railway will happen".
    Whatever happened to teleporting?


  • March 7 - DELUSIONS TWO
    Echo 5 March "15 ambitious but achievable things that could make Liverpool a better place to live".
    No mention of getting rid of the tolls. Instead the Echo wants trams, rail, shops and hotels. They even dig up Merseytravels' anti roads dream of closing the Churchill Way flyover.
    Best of all is the picture at the end of the article showing the Mayor and various bigwigs standing by a car - a Mercedes. The ideal car for visiting those people who used to have real jobs making something before the spivs took over the city.
    The next day the Echo had readers ideas Echo 6 March "Airport link, fixed roads and gig venues : your ideas to make Liverpool an even better place" which included more 'gig venues', a railway line direct to the airport and a ferry to New Brighton. Though there was a mention of roads - they should 'fix the potholes'.


  • March 7 - DELUSIONS ONE
    Echo 5 March "14 thoughts you have every time you drive through the Mersey tunnels".
    The Echo seem to have produced this article with a little help from the screen writers at Merseytravel. One give away is that they don't refer to the 'Birkenhead' and 'Wallasey' tunnels but use the names that almost no one but Merseytravel uses.
    There is no mention of Merseytravel using a large part of the tolls to fund various non Tunnels schemes.
    They admit that there are traffic queues in the Tunnels, but avoid saying that these are mainly caused by the tolls.
    It refers to the spending on safety, but does not say that this spending was nearly 15 years ago when they wanted to boost spending as an excuse to put up the tolls.


  • March 5 - FANTASTIC IDEA
    Echo 5 March "Skyscrapers in the Mersey - designer's stunning vision for linking Liverpool and Birkenhead"   y-imby "Pan-Mersey City".
    Strange that there is no mention of the main thing that divides the two sides - Tunnels tolls.


  • March 4 - JOE JOINS ANTI DIESEL CRUSADE
    Echo 3 March "Diesel vehicles could be BANNED from entering Liverpool".
    More proof that the politicians are mad. Diesels are bad for you but the politicians have been encouraging their use since 2001 by charging lower vehicle excise duty on diesel engined cars. The politicians now seem to think that all of us should and can drive electric cars. That is insane and even if they ever achieved that there would still be a problem as most of the pollution comes from commercial vehicles. Perhaps they have in mind a return to the horse and cart?
    Though there may be another plan as one 'Scouser' has suggested that the solution is a "toll or tax" on all cars in the city. With ideas like that, this Scouser must soon be leading one or other of the political parties - Echo 3 March "Diesel-free Liverpool: what do Scousers think of Mayor's plan to cut pollution?".


  • March 4 - WIRRAL TO BE SHRUNK
    Wirral Globe 3 March "Radical plans to axe Wirral parliamentary seat move a step closer".
    Liverpool is also to lose one of its five constituencies. The proposals were announced last year, it is in the news again because a second round of consultation has started.


  • March 4 - BIT MORE ON "ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW" ABOUT RIP-OFF
    Echo 3 March "No toll booths on the Mersey Gateway bridge - so how do I pay?".


  • March 2 - ANOTHER MERSEY TUNNEL?
    Liverpool Echo 2 March "Council wants highways bosses to build tunnel from Switch Island to new port of Liverpool".


  • March 2 - MTUA 'TOLLS PROMISE' LETTER IN WIRRAL NEWS
    The Wednesday 1 March edition of the Wirral News has printed a letter that we sent them. In a recent edition of Wirral News, Margaret Greenwood, the Wirral West MP, said that Steve Rotheram the Labour candidate to be Mayor of the Liverpool City Region "has pledged to reduce Mersey tunnel tolls to £1 for people who live in the region, which is good news for the many people in Wirral who use the tunnels for work, leisure and family visits."
    That might be good news if it was honoured - unlike previous tolls promises from local and national politicians. But the Labour candidate has not said that he will reduce tolls for local people.
    What he has said is that if elected then he will reduce them for those in the Liverpool City Region who have tags. Most people who use the Tunnels do not have a tag and therefore would not benefit from this.
    Whatever happens with this latest promise, the tolls situation on Merseyside will become worse later this year when the bridges between Runcorn and Widnes are tolled.
    Someone has started a petition to Parliament calling on the Government to "Remove all tolls from the River Mersey", and I urge all News readers to sign it - PETITION

  • March 2 - WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT? "BEBINGTON BEST PLACE IN ENGLAND"
    Liverpool Echo 1 March "This Merseyside town has been declared the best place to live and work in England"   Wirral Globe 1 March "Bebington crowned the 'most desirable' place to live in England".


  • March 2 - "ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW" ABOUT RIP-OFF
    Wirral Globe 28 February "TOLLS: All you need to know about crossing the new Mersey Gateway".
    As you might guess this story is from a handout from the Mersey trolls. Halton Coicil and Mersey Link seem to be distancing themselves from the tolls as a new dedicated tolls website has been launched called 'Mersey Flow'. In reality this new site has been registered by a French company called "Sanef Tolling". Trade sources say that the tolls are to be operated by yet another French company 'Emovis'. The connection seems to be that these are in fact both part of the 'Abertis' tolling empire which is based in Spain.


  • March 2 - HIGHER CAR INSURANCE DUE TO WORTHLESS MONEY
    BBC 27 February "Insurance premiums 'set to soar' after compensation changes".
    It used to be that if someone had a lump sum compensation, then interest would increase the real value of the lump sum. The Government do not otherwise admit that they and the Bank of England are trying to make the pound worthless, but they are now directing that lump sum insurance compensation will have to be increased to reflect the fact that the pound is worth less and less and that real interest rates are negative.


  • March 2 - NOT REALLY THE 64,000 DOLLAR QUESTION
    Echo 26 February "Why does the M62 start at junction 5?".
    The real answer is that about 40 years ago the politicians, locally and nationally lost their nerve and gave in to green luddites. Liverpool could have had vastly better radial roads leading to an inner motorway at a very small fraction of what it would cost now - not that these roads will ever be built.


  • March 2 - ADVICE FROM THE IGNORANT
    BBC 25 February "Car buyers should have 'long, hard think' about diesel".
    Everyone apart from greens and ignorant politicians has been aware for the last seventy years that diesel engines cause some harmful pollution. With smaller vehicles such as cars, the problem is not as bad as it was due to improvements to engines and exhausts, so it is odd that the politicians have now decided to lock the stable door when they released the horse when the pollution problem was worse.


  • March 2 - MORE SUBSIDIES FOR THE GREEN AND RICH
    Department for Transport 22 February "New measures set out autonomous vehicle insurance and electric vehicle infrastructure".


  • March 2 - RETURN TO BAD OLD DAYS?
    Wirral Globe 21 February "Consultation underway on future of Wirral bus services".
    When Merseytravel controlled bus services there were no bus services in the Tunnels. With the changes already made in the law and further powers in a Tory Government Bill currently before Parliament let us hope that Merseytravel don't use their own U-boat to again torpedo buses in the Tunnels.


  • February 18 - RAIL TUNNEL REOPENED
    Merseyrail reopened the rail tunnel from Liverpool to Birkenhead on Monday 13th. There has been little mention of this or its effect in the press. Perhaps it is a ghost tunnel?
    Yesterday, the 17th, Merseytravel issued this to the press - Merseyrail has thanked Wirral line passengers travelling for their patience during the first week of phase 2 of the track renewal work, which has seen trains running in and out of James Street, but with only one platform in use.

    Passengers were advised to leave longer for their journeys to allow for queues and to travel out of peak times if possible, and this advice appears to have been heeded. James Street has been very busy between 4pm and 6pm with queuing largely managed inside the station by Merseyrail staff.

    Rail journeys should be much smoother next week (from 20th February) when two platforms at the station will be available. Customers, especially those with bikes or with travel needs, are still advised to check the information before they travel at www.merseyrail.gov.uk/trackrenewal

    Passengers using the Wirral line at weekends are reminded that there will be rail replacement buses running between Birkenhead and Liverpool station. Throughout phase 2, weekends will see Wirral line trains starting and terminating at Birkenhead North and Birkenhead Central, and high quality, express rail replacement buses will be in operation to allow passengers to complete their journey across the river.

    There will continue to be several options for people travelling across the river at weekends – rail replacement buses, existing cross-river bus services, the Mersey Ferries and even the car. The tunnels are generally proving to be flowing freely at weekends, meaning driving may be an option on Saturday and Sundays without causing congestion.

    Special arrangements have been made for the weekends over the Grand National Festival, Easter and the May Bank Holidays, with trains starting and terminating at James Street.

    While trains will be back running Monday to Friday, people are still being advised to plan their journeys in advance as services will still be running to the same timetables as during Phase 1 of the works.

  • February 17 - BLOCK THE ROADS
    The authorities are again doing their damnedest to stop and slow traffic, even if it is worse for pedestrians - L'pool Echo 17 February "Child safety fears as bridge at one of Merseyside's busiest roads is set to be removed".


  • February 17 - ANOTHER BIT OF LIVERPOOL PASSES INTO FOREIGN HANDS
    L'pool Echo 16 February "BHS store in Liverpool has a new owner".


  • February 17 - MERSEYTRAVEL SIGNS TRAIN CONTRACT
    The contract has been signed to buy Swiss trains, though a British train firm is still complaining - BBC 16 February "Stadler signs £700m contract for 52 new Merseyrail trains"   Derby Telegraph 17 February "Bombardier vows to battle on despite £460m Merseyrail deal".
    The news media on Merseyside do not seem to have mentioned the contract signing, possibly because Merseytravel do not want questions asked about where the money is coming from.


  • February 17 - OUR LETTER IN THE GLOBE
    Wirral Globe 15 February "Scrap the Mersey tunnel tolls" letter.


  • February 17 - PLAN FOR MORE PARKING CHARGES ON THE WIRRAL IS SCALED BACK
    Though some suspect that they planned it to turn out this way - Wirral Globe 15 February "End of the road for Wirral on-street parking charge plan as idea is scrapped" lot of comments   L'pool Echo 15 February "Controversial Wirral parking charges scaled back after public outcry".
    The fight against parking charges in the 'country' parks goes on - Wirral Globe 15 February "Wirral pay-parking U-turn: Now Labour is urged to drop charge plans at borough's beauty spots".
    It is 'interesting' that there were so many signatures on petitions against a million pounds of parking charges, when Merseytavel are taking over 40 million pounds a year from the Tunnels but only about 500 people from Wirral have signed the recent petition to Parliament - "Remove all tolls from the River Mersey".


  • February 17 - OFFICIAL PRICES ARE UP
    The maximum Tunnel tolls are linked to RPI which is up again at 2.6% - BBC 14 February "UK inflation highest since June 2014".
    Real inflation is of course higher than the official figures and the aim of the banksters at the Bank of England is to make the pound worth less and less and less, while keeping wages low if they can.


  • February 17 - POLLUTION WORSE IN TRAINS THAN ROAD VEHICLES
    BBC 14 February "Tube 'higher than driving' for air pollution, study finds".


  • February 17 - M53 ROADWORKS AT JUNCTION 1 TO JUNCTION 2 (WALLASEY TO UPTON)
    Work to upgrade the safety barrier in the central reservation between junctions 1 and 2 on the M53 started on Monday (6 February). Lane closures will be in place overnight, with some full carriageway closures later in the project. The scheme is expected to take around a month to complete.


  • February 11 - TOLL MEETINGS
    The MTUA have complained to the City Region authority about what happened at and around the tolls meetings of a week ago - copy of our letter dated 7th.


  • February 10 - GRIDLOCK
    There has been chaos over a wide area for nearly 24 hours. On Thursday evening part of the M53 was closed, and the road was not fully open till about five o'clock this afternoon. The Wallasey Tunnel was closed to traffic coming from Liverpool for part of the time due to congestion near the start of the closed motorway.
    There were a lot of news reports. This was one of the latest - L'pool Echo 10 February "M53 motorway closed for 21 hours after man's body was found". This was one of the first reports - L'pool Echo 9 February "M53 closed after discovery of man's body".


  • February 10 - ANOTHER ACCIDENT ON TOLL APPROACHES
    L'pool Echo 8 February "Driver flips Range Rover at Wallasey Tunnel toll booths"   Wirral Globe 8 February "Car flipped over at Wallasey tunnel booths".
    As usual even when these accidents do get reported, the papers do not make any connection between the toll lanes and the accidents.


  • February 10 - CITY ICON SOLD OFF
    L'pool Echo 8 February "Corestate: Who are the Royal Liver Building's new owners?".
    It is typical of the Merseyside mindset that the Echo thinks the Germans taking over the Liver Building "shows confidence in Liverpool". What it really shows is that the people of this area no longer own the businesses that operate here. There is little left to sell off to the developers, banksters and spivs.


  • February 10 - TOLLS SAGA IN JMU MAG
    JMU Life 5 to 11 Feb edition Page 1 "Tunnel Turmoil".


  • FEBRUARY 8 - CROSS RIVER ARMAGEDDON
    At last Thursday's meeting of the Merseytravel Committee, one of the councillors congratulated the "wonderful team" at Merseytravel. He said that they had kept the increase in Tunnels journey time down to "fourteen seconds". It is not apparent where this number comes from or what this "wonderful team" have done.
    By coincidence that meeting had on its agenda the minutes of the committee for 5th January. On the subject of the "Wirral Slab Track Renewal", the muinutes say that -
    "The Mersey Tunnels had been relatively quiet, with the number of journeys down 25% on the first day of the closure when compared to a ‘normal’ Tuesday; however this figure continued to drop over the course of the week. The following week was expected to be busier at the tunnels and on the rail replacements services due to people retuning to work and school after the Christmas and New Year period."
    It will be interesting to see what the traffic figures and the delay figures are for the rest of the period of the closure of the under river trains.


  • February 8 - COMPLAINING TO A BRICK WALL AKA MERSEYTRAVEL
    Yesterday we made a complaint to Merseytravel about the tolls setting process. Today we gor a reply which said-
    "Thank you for your recent comments. Your reference number is 17/000713. I would like to assure you that we welcome comments and suggestions we receive regarding all aspects of our service. I have passed your comments to the relevant department/operator and have asked them to look at the points you have raised in more detail and reply to you accordingly."
    Our five page complaint of 7 Feb 2017.
    PS We never heard any more from them!!!


  • February 8 - PETITION IN NEWS
    L'pool Echo 7 February "Petition calls for tolls to be ditched on Runcorn-Widnes bridges and Mersey tunnels".
    This petition has today gone over 3,000 signatures. The signatures have come from these areas (based on constituencies which is not quite the same as Council areas) - Halton 530, Warrington 510, Wirral 430, Weaver Vale 310, Other Chester & Cheshire West 120, L'pool 260, Sefton 130, St Helens 130, Rest of country 580.
    These numbers compare with the 1,850,000 who have signed a petition started about the same time asking Parliament to "Prevent Donald Trump from making a State Visit to the United Kingdom". From L'pool there were 13,200 signatures, Wirral 7,650, Halton 1,480. Is this a sign that people are happy to pay tolls or that they have no idea of what is going on in their own backyard?


  • February 8 - NEAR THE BOTTOM OF THE TABLE
    L'ool Echo 7 February "Liverpool has some of the worst levels of adult literacy in the country".
    The National Literacy Trust ranked 533 constituencies. Ten of the worst 100 were in the Liverpool City Region - Liverpool Walton was joint 3rd worst, Knowsley was 17th, Liverpool West Derby 21st, Birkenhead was joint 28th, Bootle 34th, Liverpool Wavertree 40th, Garston & Halewood 63rd, Liverpool Riverside 72nd, Wallasey 78th, Halton 87th. Less bad were - St Helens South & Whiston joint 111th, St Helens North 133rd, Warrington North 215th. And some were in the better half - Ellesmere Port and Neston 280th, Southport 301st, Wirral West 320th, Wirral South 332nd, City of Chester 337th, Warrington South 355th, Sefton Central 399th.
    The average for the five Liverpool and four Wirral constituencies is 106th worst out of 533.


  • February 7 - LANE CLOSURES - M53 junction 1 Wallasey to junction 2 Upton
    Highways England say that "Work to upgrade the safety barrier in the central reservation between junctions 1 and 2 on the M53 is due to start on Monday 6 February. Lane closures will be in place overnight, with some full carriageway closures later in the project. The scheme is expected to take around a month to complete."


  • February 7 - LATEST ON PLAN FOR LOTS MORE PARKING CHARGES ON THE WIRRAL
    (See also January 20 and 26) - Wirral Globe 7 Febuary "Wirral Council urged to scrap controversial parking charge plan as more than 16,000 sign petition" some comments.


  • February 6 - NEXT NEW GREEN FOLLY
    The Government have recently decided that because of concerns about certain types of pollution that they will cut back on treating diesel cars more favourably than others. Instead they are now "plugging" electric vehicles. It seems that drivers are getting the message - BBC 6 Febuary "Motorists shun diesel cars while eco-friendly sales rise".
    "Alternatively-fuelled vehicles" now make up 4 per cent of sales. The main reason for this is that the taxpayer pays for 35% of the cost of the vehicle, the owners don't pay Vehicle Excise Duty or Fuel Duty (unless they are hybrids) and may even be given free electricity. There are even hints that Merseytravel want to exempt them from tolls (presumably financed by putting other tolls up and as long as too many people do not take up the offer). How long will it be before the Government realise that these vehicles make almost no difference to emissions in the UK?


  • February 6 - STUNNED
    The Echo has a feature which includes the Birkenhaed Tunnel and the "Mersey Gateway". They even have a link to our Tunnels History page - L'pool Echo 5 Febuary "Mersey megaprojects - stunning pictures of our iconic landmarks being built".


  • February 6 - LABOUR PROMISES BILLIONS FOR NORTH WEST TRANSPORT
    The Labour Party had an "Economy" conference in Liverpool on Saturday. They promised the Earth for public transport. But there was no mention of the Tunnels cash cow - L'pool Echo 4 Febuary "Labour says it will deliver £10 billion HS3 and cut Liverpool-Manchester journeys to 25 minutes".


  • February 6 - AMAZINGLY IT SEEMS THAT SOME BRIDGES ARE PROVIDED FOR FREE
    BBC 3 Febuary "Flood-hit Tadcaster bridge reopens after 13 months".


  • February 3 - MERSEYTRAVEL WANTS TO SHUT OUT HOMELESS
    L'pool Echo 3 Febuary "Merseytravel moving North John Street doors so homeless people can't sleep in doorway".


  • February 3 - TAKE A CITY MAYOR, OR TWO, OR THREE
    BBC 3 Febuary "Blog: Mulling Merseyside's mercurial mayors".


  • February 3 - CITY REGION TOLL MEETING
    Yesterday it was Merseytravel 'recommending' what the tolls should be, today it was the City Region Council leaders making the decision. Some MTUA members went but we might as well not have bothered, the item went though in under two minutes with no questions and no debate. So the tolls stay as they are and over the next 12 months Merseytravel will pocket another thirteen million pounds of profits.
    After the tolls they moved on todeal with their 250 million pound proposed budget for the year starting in April. Again this was done and dusted in less than two minutes - that's about two million pounds a second of non-consideration.
    Steve Rotheram, the Labour Partyt candidate for the elected City Region Mayor was sitting in the public seats. We wonder what, if anything, he made of it all.
    The Echo report of the meeting - L'pool Echo 3 Febuary "Mersey Tunnel tolls will be FROZEN for next year", quotes what the Merseytravel chairman said at the meeting. They must have been using a Vulcan mind probe, as though the Merseytravel chairman was present he did not speak.


  • February 2 - MERSEYTRAVEL TOLL MEETING
    Some MTUA members went to today's meeting at Mann Island. The brief meeting was filmed by John Brace, the Wirral blogger.   Here is his film of the main part of the meeting.   Here is his account of the meeting.

    Here is what we have to say about the meeting -

    As expected the meeting was a piece of theatre as a report that said what had happened to the meeting was written and circulated last week. As usual Merseytravel tried to mislead the users of the Tunnels. It was implied that the tolls were used to maintain the Tunnels and that any profit was needed in case major problems arose. There was no mention of the profit of over £13 million that Merseytravel will be taking from the tolls to spend on other things.

    Merseytravel patted themselves on the back for the benefit that they were giving to families on Merseyside by not having tolls on Christmas Day enabling people to visit "relatives and hospitals and stuff like that". It seems that they are quite happy to be Scrooge the other 364 days of the year.

    At the Meeting Merseytravel said that "we should never forget that our Tunnels do not receive any finance from Central Government. Particularly when we think about when in 2015 when George Osborne (the ex Chancellor) and Philip Hammond (the new Chancellor) toured the Wirral, particularly, making a number of pledges about how they would be looking at cutting the cost of Tunnel tolls. And, nothing, has come forth from the Conservative Government. And we should never forget that either. So in view of the fact that we don't actually get any Government finance, then on balance charging a toll to those people who use the Tunnel is fairer than it being funded via Council Tax. And that is before we even think about complexities surrounding the Tunnels Act itself. But not withstanding all of those things I am really pleased that we are ...."

    This was the pot calling the kettle black, as though the Government are not helping at least they are not the ones who are taking away money from users of the Tunnels to spend on their pet schemes.

    Merseytravel also said "We should always remeber that a majority of Tunnel users are using the Fast Tag .. something which is of direct benefit to the majority of users."

    In fact, though probably just over half the journeys that are made through the Tunnel do not pay cash, the majority of people who use the Tunnels at some time in the year will NOT have a Fast Tag and they are being used as a cash cow for Merseytravel and the City Region.


  • February 2 - OUR PLEA TO AUTHORITY BOSSES IN THE PAPER
    There is of course the usual non-answer from Merseytravel - Wirral Globe 2 Febuary "UPDATED: Merseytravel committee votes in favour of tunnel toll freeze"   Click L'pool 2 Febuary "Mersey Tunnel Users Demand Scrapped Tolls"   L'pool Echo 2 Febuary "Transport chiefs told to remove Mersey Tunnel tolls as they "divide families" ahead of key meetings".

    This is the full text of what we said to the papers before the meeting - The Merseytravel Committee are having their annual budget meeting on Thursday (2nd) and the Liverpool City Region are having their budget meeting the next day (3rd). As well as the budget they are to discuss proposals that tolls for the coming year will stay the same as they are now.

    The Mersey Tunnels Users Association (MTUA) say that "the authorities must have access to a time machine" as the tolls report that is going to the meeting on Friday says what happened at Thursdays' meeting even though the meeting has not yet taken place.

    More importantly the MTUA say that the authorities are still failing to honour what was said before the General Election. "Both Labour and the Conservatives made various promises about reducing or even removing tolls. Joe Anderson, the Liverpool Mayor, said that using the Tunnel tolls to finance Merseytravel's other activities "was fundamentally wrong" and that “all the profits that are made from the Tunnels should go into driving down the Tunnel tolls costs."

    The MTUA claim "Despite what has been said the Tunnels are still making a profit, though you might not know it if you looked at the reports going to the Merseytravel Committee. The authority are not only making a profit but as best we can tell the authority are actually budgeting to increase the profit from an expected £12,747,000 this financial year to £13,260,000 in the year starting in April."

    Dave Loudon, the chairman of the MTUA, has written to the members of the Authority saying "We believe that any tolling is unfair and divides families, friends and businesses in our region. The situation is made worse by the Authority continuing to profit from the Tunnels and we ask that you stop the profit taking and that you introduce concessions that will ease the tolls burden on all drivers. There could be a substantial reduction in all tolls and / or the Authority could reconsider some of the suggestions that we have made in the past."

    The MTUA suggestions include removing or reducing all tolls at certain times (e.g. evenings) or on certain days (e.g. weekends and public holidays). They also suggest having one way tolls (with the toll in the reverse direction increased) thus "halving the congestion and pollution that is caused by tolling".

    The MTUA also point out that earlier this month the Government announced that it would not be honouring its pre election promises that residents from a wide area outside Halton would not have to pay the tolls on the "Mersey Gateway". The bridge is due to open later this year, so within the next 12 months anyone this side of Warrington who wants to cross the river will be forced to pay tolls unless they live in Halton.

  • February 1 - FAKE NEWS
    Wirral News 1 Febuary "The latest news from Margaret Greenwood MP".
    The Wirral West MP says that Steve Rotheram the Labour candidate to be Mayor of the Liverpool City Region "has pledged to reduce Mersey tunnel tolls to £1 for people who live in the region, which is good news for the many people in Wirral who use the tunnels for work, leisure and family visits."
    We are not sure who would be "local", but in any case the Labour candidate has not said he will reduce tolls for "local" people, he has said that he will reduce them for those in the Liverpool City Region who have tags and most people who use the Tunnels do not have a tag.


  • January 31 - Hush...Hush TRAINS MYSTERY - TRAIN BUILDER TO GO TO COURT
    We reported on the 17 December that Merseytravel were splashing out £469 million on new trains following a meeting where press and public were excluded. What we did not mention was that the trains were to be Swiss built. It now seems that a train builder in Britain is to challenge the decision - L'pool Echo 30 January "Merseytravel's choice for £460 million new trains contract to be challenged in High Court".


  • January 30 - LETTER TO THE POLITICIANS ABOUT THE TOLLS PLUNDER
    Yesterday we sent this letter to the Council Leaders on the City Region Combined Authority.


  • January 30 - GOVERNMENT RENEGE ON MERSEY 'GATEWAY' TOLL PROMISES
    Last week the Government announced that residents outside Halton would have to pay tolls on the Mersey bridges despite what was promised by George Osborne befoore the General Election. You can see a lot more about this on our 'Mersey Gateway' news page

    The statement by the Minister seems to have inspired someone to start a new petition to Parliament against ALL the Mersey tolls Parliament petitions "Remove all tolls from the River Mersey".


  • January 30 - MERSEYTRAVEL SAY THAT THERE IS NO CROSS RIVER ARMAGEDDON
    Wirral Globe 28 January "Loop line alternative travel services are 'working well' says Merseytravel chief executive".
    If they really want to cause chaos then they could close the Tunnels. About the only thing that stops them doing this is that they would lose their tolls profits:)


  • January 27 - THE TOLLS PLUNDER TO CONTINUE
    The politicians are expected to decide next week that the tolls are not changed, according to a Merseytravel press release yesterday - Mersey Tunnel tolls could be frozen for 2017/18, with Merseytravel Committee Members asked to recommend to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority that there be no change to charges when they meet next week (Thursday 2nd February). Should the recommendations be implemented, the Fast Tag toll would stay at £1.20 for car users and the cash toll at £1.70. Therefore, regular tunnel users who pay using the Fast Tag can, once again, save £5 a week compared to paying the cash toll.
    2015/16 saw 51% of journeys through the tunnel by Fast Tag– the first year that the majority of travellers have taken advantage of the discount the tag brings.
    Other recommendations made in the tunnel tolls report to be considered at the meeting include continuing other initiatives introduced last year - emergency services liveried vehicles receiving free travel through the Mersey Tunnels, as well as free travel for all users between 10pm on 24th December and 6am on 26th December in recognition that public transport services are not available during these times.
    Frank Rogers, Interim Chief Executive of Merseytravel, said:
    “As always, it is for political members to take a decision on the tunnel toll levels. However, reflecting on the past year, it is encouraging to see people taking advantage of the benefits that a Fast Tag can bring.
    For the first time Fast Tag customers now represent the majority of tunnel usage but there are still many more people who can benefit from these savings.”
    Fast Tags are available to everyone, not just regular travellers, and are issued free of charge and tunnel users are encouraged to order one. As well as the savings drivers can make, there are also dedicated Fast Tag lanes at each tunnel plaza. Fast Tag offers ‘stored value’ meaning that customers’ money stays in their Fast Tag account until it is used, no matter how long that is.
    L'pool Echo 26 January "Mersey Tunnel tolls set to be frozen for the next year"   Wirral Globe 26 January "Could tunnel tolls be frozen again? Merseytravel committee to vote next week".

    As usual, the public are being deceived. Promises were made two years ago that tolls would be reduced or removed and that Merseytravel would stop making a profit from the tolls. In fact for the coming year they are expecting to make a profit of £13,260,000. This is a bigger profit than they made last year. Not that you would know that from the press reports or even from the Merseytravel budget which shows the Tunnels as just breaking even.

    Report going to Merseytravel Cttee on Thursday 2 February 2017   Report going to Combined Authority on Friday 3 February 2017  Map attached to both reports, it shows Fast Tag users.


  • January 26 - WHAT'S IN A NAME?
    The official name of the City Region is "The Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral Combined Authority", though nearly three years ago they decided to call themselves "Liverpool City Region Combined Authority". They have now got round to making this legal and have just published this notice on their website - "Notice under section 97 of the Local Transport Act 2008 - Change of name to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
    The Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral Combined Authority was established by the Halton, Knowsley Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral Combined Authority Order 2014.
    On 1 April 2014, in accordance with section 97(1) and (2) of the Local Transport Act 2008, as applied by section 104 (4) of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, the Combined Authority considered a resolution that the Combined Authority change the name by which it is known to Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. On 25 November 2016, in accordance with section 97(3)(a), as applied by section 104(4) of the 2009 Act, of the Local Transport Act 2008, the Combined Authority sent notice of the change of name to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
    This notice will be published on the constituent authorities’ websites and offices for a two week period commencing on Thursday, 26 January 2017."

  • January 26 - MORE ON PLAN FOR LOTS MORE PARKING CHARGES ON THE WIRRAL
    (See also January 20) - L'pool Echo 24 January "'Introduce controversial new parking charges - or social workers face the axe'"   Wirral Globe 24 January "UPDATE: Councillors clash over controversial parking charges for Wirral as protest petition gains 15,000 names" lots of comments   L'pool Echo 24 January "Protest at Wallasey Town Hall over proposed car parking charges - reread"   L'pool Echo 24 January "Wirral parking row: protest will call for council to scrap new charges".
    Wirral Council Business Overview And Scrutiny Committee 24 January 2016 "Presentation on the details of the 2017/18 Budget Savings Proposals for Car Parking Charges".

    If the plan goes ahead then there will be lots of places in the Wirral directly affected. There will also be an effect on nearby roads which will either have more cars parked there or will be subject to new parking restrictions or new charges. There are various petitions, unfortunately there is no petition which covers all the proposed charges and they seem to be playing political party games.
    The petitions with the most signatures are -
    Change "car-parking charges at Wirral's Country Parks".
    38 Degrees "car-parking charges at Wirral's Country Parks".
    Change "parking charges in New Brighton".
    38 Degrees "parking charges in New Brighton".
    Change "on-road parking charges".

    You can also object by 10 February, quoting scheme ref - SA/PS/2017 on this link - Wirral Council Traffic Scheme Feedback.
    Or you could email the Wirral councillors using the links on Our contacts page


  • January 23 - USELESS PROMISES
    The Labour candidate for the region's Mayor says that when elected he will reduce tag tolls to one pound - L'pool Echo 23 January "Rotheram: 'I'll slash Tunnel tolls to £1 for regular commuters'"   Click 23 January "Mayor hopeful pledges £1 Mersey-Tunnel tolls".
    Even if Steve Rotheram surprised everyone by honouring this promise, it would still leave most drivers paying £1.70 and Merseytravel still making a massive profit.


  • January 23 - ANOTHER CRASH
    As usual we are not told what they think caused the crash - Wirral Globe 20 January "Man taken to hospital after Birkenhead tunnel crash"   L'pool Echo 20 January "25-year-old cut free from car after Birkenhead Tunnel crash".


  • January 20 - PLAN FOR LOTS MORE PARKING CHARGES ON THE WIRRAL
    Wirral Council like a lot of councils is facing a financial squeeze. Part of its response is a plan to blanket the Wirral with parking charges - Wirral Globe 19 January "Full list of streets where free parking is about to end as pay-and-display blitz hits Wirral" lots of comments   L'pool Echo 15 January "Would paying to park at Wirral country parks be a "tax on the enjoyment of nature"?".


  • January 20 - DRIVING TIPS
    Crashtest "Safe Driving Practices"   Help Guide "Safety Tips and Warning Signs for Older Drivers".
    You may notice that one tip is "avoid changing lanes". A bit difficult if you are approaching toll booths.


  • January 20 - CAR TAX CHANGES
    From April Vehicle Excise Duty is changing. Diesel cars will only have a tax advantage in the first year after registration. The changes do not affect existing cars , which means that diesels will continue to pay little or no tax, while petrol engines are heavily taxed - DVLA "Vehicle tax (VED)is changing...".


  • January 20 - OR WOULD YOU BELIEVE THIS (see story below)
    L'pool Echo 17 January "The happiest places in UK revealed - and it's bad news for Liverpool.


  • January 16 - WOULD YOU BELIEVE THIS
    L'pool Echo 15 January "Liverpool named the country's top city to find a job in 2017".
    The next thing you know thousands of people from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh will be besieging the city and clamouring for better commuter links.


  • January 16 - BIG PUBLICITY THAT COSTS PEANUTS
    Merseyside is to get just over £1 million from the Government for its roads. To put this in perspective, the Government takes ONE BILLION POUNDS A WEEK FROM DRIVERS - L'pool Echo 13 January "Liverpool city region gets cash to fix potholes - but where should it be spent?".


  • January 16 - PROPOSED NEW TUNNEL
    On the 12th the Government started a consultation on building a 1.8 mile tunnel near Stonehenge. There are no plans for tolls - BBC 12 January "Stonehenge tunnel plan finalised by government"   Highways England "A303 Stonehenge".


  • January 5 - CAR SALES UP
    BBC 4 January "UK car sales at record high in 2016".
    Given the growth in population, it should not be a surprise that car sales are 2% up. Though what is more relevant for our crowded roads is the number of vehicles. At September 2016 there were 37.4 million registered vehicles in Britain, this was 2% more than a year before and 42% up over two decades.
    Diesel engines account for nearly half of 2016's car sales. This is partly because Britain's politicians give them favorable tax treatment because they believe that CO2 is a pollutant and ignore the real pollution which comes from diesel engines.


  • January 5 - DEBT GALORE
    Zero Hedge 4 January "Global Debt Hits 325% Of World GDP, Rises To Record $217 Trillion"   BBC 4 January "Household debt rises to post-credit crunch high".
    The people responsible for encouraging this massive debt and making money out of it are the same ones that like to make money from tolls. Their ideal world would be to magic up some Tunnels debt and then use that as an excuse for increasing the tolls.


  • January 5 - ANOTHER TUNNELS BEANO FOR CYCLISTS
    Merseytravel are again handing one of the tunnels over to their friends for a 'charity' trip for cyclists. As usual the impression is given that all of the money goes to the charity, it is not revealed how much money goes to the organisers.
    Liverpool Echo 2 January "Sign up for popular Liverpool Chester charity bike ride".


  • January 4 - NO TOLLS SUSPENSION, BUT SOME PARKING CHARGES SUSPENDED
    Wirral Globe 4 January "Free parking scheme in Birkenhead slammed as 'unfair' by opponents".


  • January 4 - FAT CATS IN THREE AND A HALF DAYS GET AS MUCH AS WORKERS GET IN A YEAR
    BBC 4 January "Executive pay: 'Fat Cat Wednesday' highlighted".


  • January 3 - CROSS RIVER ARMAGEDDON D DAY
    Wirral Globe 4 January "UPDATED: Major travel disruption for Wirral rail commuters as loop line closure begins today"   Liverpool Echo 2 January "Wirral line users braced for disruption as track renewal works get under way".
    There are NO reports as to what actually happened. One reason for this is that it seemed like a non event, as despite there being no train service under the river, traffic flowed normally through the Tunnels.
    There are several possible explanations:
    i Most of the people that normally use the trains will have used buses.
    ii Merseytravel have been running a phantom train service that costs a lot but carries relatively few people.
    iv Today was not a normal day as schools are still closed and some working parents may also be off.
    v If they can then people travel earlier or later to avoid the worst of the peak.
    vi People did not use the Tunnels because they expected it to be worse.

    Or perhaps it is because Merseytravel pulled their fingers out and made sure that the toll booths were fully manned. They usually care little about drivers having to queue but they may have wanted to avoid possible bad publicity following our call for the tolls to be suspended.

    This morning a MTUA spokesman was with a Made in Liverpool reporter who was filming at the side of the Wallasey Tunnel approaches. They were asked to leave as they 'were on private property'. Some people might think that the Tunnels were public properety, but of course the toll barons have their own laws to keep the plebs away.


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