Sadiq Khan has been London Mayor since 2016. He has been criticised for both his spending - let us not forget the infamous beach parties and personality tests for police - and his stance on motors within the city. His ULEZ scheme, which sees non-compliant vehicles charged in order to promote cleaner air in the capital, has had Londoners up in arms since it came into effect in 2019. The Mayor has said it is ‘the most effective way to cut toxic air’, but many believe his motives lie more with the money more than the environment.
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Now, another scheme which is linked to ULEZ has come to light. The London Mayor has employed 157 staff on this Transport for London (TfL) plan which is reportedly another major battle in his ‘war on motorists’. Let’s take a look into Project Detroit, Khan’s most recent - and very expensive - scheme.
Project Detroit
Khan is investing in a £150 million ‘secret’ technology project, reports The Telegraph. It was set up by TfL as a ‘more sophisticated… new core technology platform for road-user charging’. For now, the technology is being developed to merge ULEZ, congestion and other charges into a single payment. But Conservatives at City Hall have said it could be used to go a step further. The technology will be capable of ‘charging motorists a pay-per-mile road tax’, meaning Londoners would be charged based on the distance driven in vehicles within the city.
TfL explained:
The Detroit platform has the capability to be extended and we will be looking to build the system flexibly so that other forms of charging based on distance, vehicle type, etc could be catered for if a decision was made in future to do so.
The project started in 2021 and has already cost £21 million. Some engineers on the project are earning over £100,000 a year for their involvement in the development of this new technology. These figures may seem pretty high, but they are knocked out of the park by the total estimated cost of the completed project. Deep breath: it’s expected to come in somewhere between £130 million to £150 million.
Reactions to Khan’s new project
There have been murmurings for some time that an integrated pay-per-mile charge could come into effect, replacing the existing fees such as the congestion charge. Yet, due to criticism over the expansion of ULEZ - which the Mayor promised not to do and then did anyway - Khan has said he won’t introduce this distance-based charge.
Peter Fortune, the Conservative London Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley, doesn’t believe him, reminding us that he ‘has a history of saying one thing and doing the opposite’:
Sadiq Khan can deny it all he wants but it’s pretty clear he plans to introduce pay-per-mile road-user charges for every motorist if he wins a third term.
You can see why Khan would be pushed to make this change: motorists will pay TfL £1 billion in ULEZ and other road-user charges in 2024. Not to be cynical, but as Fortune points out:
As the number of non-Ulez compliant vehicles inevitably falls, he’ll need to find new sources of revenue.
Fortune’s knowledge on the topic is limited because it’s ‘a very secretive project’. He said:
I know the team includes experts working on a pay-per-mile road-user charging scheme.
I asked to visit the project team last year. I’m still waiting for an invite.
A TfL spokesperson has denied that this move is underway, stating that ‘pay-per-mile charging has been ruled out by the mayor and no such scheme is on the table or being developed’.
Time will tell whether Khan will actually stick to his word on this one.
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Sources used:
The Telegraph: Sadiq Khan investing £150m in ‘secret’ technology that could deliver pay-per-mile road charging
The Standard: What is Ulez and how has if affected air pollution?
