£6bn jambuster package announced

Further plans to allow drivers to use motorway hard shoulders and possible tolled lanes were announced by the Government today as part of a six-year, £6 billion jambuster package.

Hard-shoulder driving at peak times has already been successfully trialled on the M42 near Birmingham.

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Today Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said the Government was looking at further hard-shoulder schemes at new locations.

These include the M3 and M4 approaches to London the M4 and M5 around Bristol and the M3 and M27 around Southampton.

Today's investment, for England's motorways and other key routes, also includes:

* Hard-shoulder use at sections of the motorway network where widening was previously planned

* A £60 million congestion-easing fund for eight areas - Bristol, Greater Manchester, Leicester, London, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and the West Midlands

* Funding for Leeds, Cambridgeshire and Reading in Berkshire to tackle congestion combined with possible local congestion charging

* Investigation of dedicated or tolled lane use as in operation in America

* £8 million to help local authorities manage their transport assets more effectively.

Ms Kelly said: "I am determined to get the best from our road network so that motorists have reliable journey times on roads that are safe and well-managed. The greatest barrier to this is congestion. It is frustrating and has serious consequences for the economy and the environment.

"To achieve this we need a smarter programme of investment. The £6 billion I am announcing today will allow us to develop and implement more innovative approaches to the way we use our major roads. This includes measures like opening the hard shoulder when traffic is at its heaviest, alongside some conventional widening where that makes best sense.

She went on: "Where we add new capacity through measures like this I am also interested to see what role car share or tolled lanes could play in helping traffic flow more smoothly - giving motorists a choice about how they make their journeys.

"The majority of congestion is in our towns and cities, where the answer cannot be building new roads. That is why I will continue to support councils who want to investigate whether radical packages, which include public transport improvements combined with local congestion charging, would be the right solution for them."

AA president Edmund King said: "We are pleased that progress is being made on the roads and we would look forward to studying the detail.

"We need a host of improvements to combat congestion. We reiterate our view that safety must be paramount when it comes to hard shoulder running and therefore we need to see adequate safe havens and overhead gantries. The M42 scheme worked well as much attention was paid to detail and safety of drivers.

"Hard shoulder running is not a panacea for all our motorway congestion problems and we still believe that some motorways should be widened as this brings greater capacity and safety benefits."

He added: "Our recent poll shows that a majority of motorists oppose charging a fee for single occupant cars on high-occupancy vehicle lanes or indeed charging for new motorway construction.

"If these schemes are to go ahead, the Government must convince motorists of the benefits in terms of reduced congestion and improved reliability. If motorists are not convinced, these schemes will be seen as yet another tax.

"In terms of local congestion charging schemes, we believe that the local population should decide whether such schemes should go ahead."

Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "The M42 trial seems to have been successful so far, due to the investment in infrastructure and the reduced speed limit when the hard shoulder is in use as a running lane.

"We support the scheme being rolled out to more locations provided the locations are suitable and there is the same infrastructure, especially emergency refuges, active speed limit signs, instructions to drivers about when they can and cannot drive on the hard shoulder, and the speed limit is lowered when drivers are allowed to do so.

"As we said at the start of the M42 trial, the Highways Agency will need to monitor the new locations carefully and be alert to any new or unexpected issues that come to light."

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker said: "This is a carbon catastrophe. Yet more funding is being channelled into increasing road capacity rather than expanding the railways and supporting public transport.

"The Department for Transport (DfT) has lazily fallen back on predict and provide and has chosen to ignore the fact that any attempts to build our way out of congestion are doomed to failure.

"The Government has made no suggestions for tackling the carbon consequences of opening hard shoulders to traffic. Tackling climate change is clearly out of favour at the DfT."

Mike Pickard, head of risk and underwriting at insurance company esure, said: "It is crucial for drivers to feel safe and confident behind the wheel - especially when driving at motorway speeds.

"Heightened anxiety caused by not having a safe place to pull in to could lead to a lack of concentration and potentially increase the risk of having an accident, which would lead to further congestion.

"The hard shoulder is a notorious hotspot for accidents at the best of times as broken-down vehicles distract other motorists. However, not having a hard shoulder is likely to significantly increase the vulnerability of motorists involved in a breakdown.

"The golden rule is always to pull in as far away from the moving traffic as possible, yet some motorists, without having the width of a hard shoulder, may resort to driving up the motorway bank in fear of their own safety.

"That's why, although we welcome the Government's commitment to tackling congestion on motorways, we believe that this should not have a detrimental effect on the safety of motorists or their perceived level of safety while driving."