The cost of driving through the Tyne Tunnel will jump by up to 50p in 2023.
Councillors voted on Tuesday to increase the price of the toll for using the busy crossing, but decided to defer the hike from next February until May because of the major financial pressures already set to hit North East households this winter. It means that the class two vehicle toll for car drivers will rise from £1.90 to £2.20 and the class three HGV toll will go from £3.90 to £4.40.
Members of the North East Joint Transport Committee’s Tyne and Wear sub-committee were told on Tuesday afternoon that the toll needed to increase at a higher rate than usual because of the escalating levels of inflation and to pay back the debts incurred in building the second tunnel. Philip Smith, chief executive of Tyne Tunnel operator TT2, said that the electricity bills for the crossing were expected to rise by an “astonishing” £1m because of the energy crisis.
Read More: Tyne and Wear Metro engineers call off two-week depot strike after eleventh hour pay deal agreed
Committee chair Carl Johnson, the deputy mayor of North Tyneside, said that decision-makers would not be upping the toll “if we were not contractually and legally bound to do this”. He added: “We fully understand that everyone and every organisation is going through massive cost increases at the moment. The deferment [to May] is the best we can do as a committee to at least try and alleviate the pressure.”
Motorists who pay their Tyne Tunnel toll using a pre-paid account will still get a 10% discount under the new toll levels, making the cost £1.98 for cars and £3.96 for HGVs. Keeping the toll at an “artificially lower level” until next May will require £1.5m to be spent from the Tyne and Wear councils’ Tyne Tunnel cash reserves, but bosses say that freezing the toll beyond next May would mean that their reserves would “be reduced to an unacceptable level”.
Gateshead councillor John McElroy said: “None of us like having any sort of price increase, particularly to public services. But, in view of the fact that costs are going up, we have to fulfil our obligations and see this increase go through.
“Nevertheless, I agree with the deferment. That seems like a sensible compromise, that way we at least alleviate some of the pressures of the cost of living crisis.”
The decision on the tunnel tolls had been delayed from earlier this month, when a meeting had to be postponed because too few councillors were available to vote on the critical issue. Tyne Tunnel bosses last week marked 12 months since the removal of the crossing’s old toll booths and the start of a new, cashless payment system that requires motorists to pay either online, with a pre-paid account, over the phone, or in shops with PayPoint counters.
Read More:
- Fears that 'essential' fire services in Tyne and Wear face cuts amid 'huge' budget strain
- Tyne Tunnel marks one year since toll booths axed in switch to controversial cashless payments
- Council tax and Newcastle parking charges to rise under plans to slash £23m from budget
- Newcastle tower block residents slam 'unbelievably loud' 24-hour demolition works in city centre
- Newcastle's most polluted streets revealed – as Coast Road junction named as worst emissions hotspot
