Roger Jones, the chairman of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, says it’s very early days and that it’s important to understand that the notion of a congestion charge for Manchester only comes as a result of the council asking for funding for public transport. "We’re not campaigning for road pricing," said Mr Jones in a debate with BBC Radio Manchester’s Terry Christian, "but what the Secretary of State is saying that if you’re putting bids in for extra money, you must do something about congestion, if not now, then in four or five years time, and I think he’s right on that. "In order to improve the public transport, there’s a number of things we need to do. One is Metrolink. We’ve got most of the money, but we need a bit more for expansion to the airport."
 | | Are more buses the answer? |
Mr Jones explained that the congestion into Manchester city centre is just getting worse and worse, and that’s why it has been chosen as a pilot city for regional congestion charges. "In England, Birmingham and Manchester stand out as areas that need to be looked at," he explained, "and both areas have said to the Government that they are prepared to look at congestion." While he is totally behind the idea that public transport is central to fighting traffic jams, Mr Jones says that the city is "failing on the buses. The patronage on the buses is staying the same, and if we don’t improve that, then we’re in real trouble, so we feel that the Government, as well as talking about road pricing, should be giving us more powers to deal with the buses, so that we can make them more effective." What he does say, though, is that the overall message is simple, and that the end result "has got to be less cars on the road and more people on public transport."
So it's almost inevitable that congestion charging will hit the roads of Manchester, but is it the right option? Should we have to pay road charges for better public transport?
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