Call for congestion charges on evening rush hour

Environmental campaigners are calling for congestion charges to be introduced in the evening rush hour after their research revealed that more cars entered central London after 18:00 than in the morning.

Clean Cities said the number of cars that entered central London "dramatically increased" by more than 50% after the Congestion Charge ended.

"After 18:00, the West End turns into the Wild West, with no Congestion Charge and few parking controls," said Oliver Lord from Clean Cities.

Transport for London (TfL) said it had "no plans to alter" the Congestion Charge operating hours, which it said accounted for a range of factors including the night time economy and weekday travel patterns.

Clean Cities said analysis of a typical week, derived from TfL data and FOI requests, showed there were 6,170 vehicle entries to the Congestion Charge zone between 18:00 and 19:00, compared to 3,955 between 08:00 and 09:00.

The charge is paid by people who drive within the central London zone between 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays.

It costs £18 if paid on the day or in advance or £21 if paid by midnight of the third day after travel.

Purely battery-powered electric vehicles are eligible for a 25% discount if registered for Auto Pay, reducing the fee to £13.50 a day.

The Congestion Charge's operating hours were reduced from 22:00 to 18:00 in February 2022.

Clean Cities called for the Congestion Charge to be re-introduced in the evenings.

The group compared a typical week in February 2022 and October 2022 and found traffic volumes rose after the hours were reduced.

TfL said: "When determining the right time to end the Congestion Charge operating hours on weekdays, we made the decision based on evolving weekday travel patterns, the impact on the evening economy in central London, including those who need to carry large or heavy loads, and people who need to drive in for shift work."

Thomas Turell, a Conservative member of the London Assembly, said he was not in favour of extending the Congestion Charge, which he called "a blunt instrument".

He told BBC London: "It is bad for business and ultimately what you need is much more investment in the infrastructure that will help people swap to cleaner vehicles, not just taxing drivers off the road."

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