London City chokes on its own traffic

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 9

London City chokes on its own traffic

PA London Marks and Spencer’s Oxford Street store alone loses a staggering SNZS.4 million a year because delivery vans are held up in London’s chronically congested streets. It takes them up to an hour and a half to travel 6.4 km between the warehouse and Marks and Sparks’ Marble Arch branch, the shop with the highest turnover a square metre.

The company’s tale of woe is just one of hundreds catalogued in a survey which charts for the first time the full cost of traffic jams to London business. The Confederation of British Industry study said congestion cost SNZ4O billion in extra charges, most of which were passed on to the consumer. Six leading companies, including Marks and Spencer, estimated the cost at a total SNZBI

million between them. “London is strangling itself to death,” the report warned. Top of the losers’ list was the Royal Mail, which reckoned traffic delays cost it an extra SNZ2B.2 million a year and delayed letters by up to a day. British Telecom calculated it paid out an extra SNZI9.S million a year and said an increase in average traffic speeds of only 2.3km/h would cut

drivers’ hours by 640,000 a year and save more than 2.3 million litres of fuel. One taxi company said regular 40-minute delays between London’s Heathrow airport and the West End cost passengers an extra SNZ22, while across-town hold-ups boosted fares from SNZ7 to SNZ9.2O. The over-all effect is th# London is 20 per cent more expensive to trade

in than any comparable conurbation. The survey recommends the Government appoint a Minister of Transport for London and calls for urgent initiatives to tackle the problem. Last week, a woman living 32km from London spent 10>/£ hours behind the wheel trying to get to work, attend a meeting north of London and returning home.