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Sadiq Khan is spending £150million on ‘secret’ technology that will enable the introduction of pay-per-mile road charging on motorists struggling to cope with the London Mayor’s hated Ulez charges.
The new scheme, titled Project Detroit, was created by Khan’s Transport for London (TfL) in a bid to introduce a ‘more sophisticated… new core technology platform for road-user charging’.
A total of 157 staff are now working exclusively on the scheme, with some engineers paid more than £100,000 a year, Freedom of Information requests showed.
A staggering £21million has already been spent on the scheme, which began in 2021, while the predicted final cost is believed to be between £130 million and £150 million, The Telegraph reported.
The project is making a single ‘road user charging’ platform for the congestion charge, Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) and Low Emission Zone.
Sadiq Khan (pictured) is spending £150million on ‘secret’ technology that will enable the introduction of pay-per-mile road charging on motorists
The project is creating a single ‘road user charging’ platform for the congestion charge, Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) and Low Emission Zone (Stock photo)
Protesters opposed to the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone demonstrate outside BBC Broadcasting House on July 22, 2023, in London
It is thought Project Detroit could be used to introduce a charge based on the distance driven in vehicles within London.
One FoI response from TfL read: ‘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 Conservative London Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley, Peter Fortune, claimed the project will likely lead to pay-per-mile charging.
‘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,’ he said.
A TfL spokesperson said: ‘Any work carried out or staff hired as part of Project Detroit has been in relation to TfL’s existing road-user charging schemes.
A staggering £21million has already been spent on the scheme, which began in 2021
A sign highlighting the boundary of London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) (Stock photo)
‘This was part of TfL’s wider work to bring in-house the currently outsourced system for which the contract expires in 2026.
‘Pay-per-mile charging has been ruled out by the mayor and no such scheme is on the table or being developed.’
Ministers told the Commons in July last year that the Labour mayor was planning to hit drivers with a pay-per-mile or pay-per-minute regime to use the capital’s roads.
Older vehicles which pollute the environment and motorists using roads at peak times could be charged more under the scheme, it was reported.
It sparked fury among MPs and campaigners, who accused Mr Khan of trying to ‘shut London down’.
There were also fears he could try to impose the initiative on the entire Greater London area, echoing his controversial Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) scheme.
