Charged traffic flows smoothly

A pioneering traffic reduction scheme which was expected to cause widespread chaos got off to a quiet start.

It was feared that London Mayor Ken Livingstone's plan to charge motorists £5 a day to enter the heart of the capital could cause huge problems.

But with the launch deliberately planned to coincide with the first day of the school half-term holidays, traffic in the London area generally flowed smoothly.

Scheme organiser Transport for London (TfL) said traffic within the charge zone was about 25% lighter than normal and that there was no evidence of significant congestion problems.

However, the real test for the scheme - the most ambitious introduced in the world so far - will come during the busier times expected in the next few weeks.

By 1pm, as many as 57,000 people had paid the charge for today, including several thousand who paid at newsagents and stores around the country.

Payments were made as far from London as Tavistock in Devon and Halifax in West Yorkshire.

By the end of today, around 80,000 were expected to have paid, with TfL predicting that only "a few thousand" would fail to pay before the 10pm deadline. Non-payment incurs an £80 fine.

Derek Turner, TfL's street management managing director, said: "Central London congestion charging has got off to a good start but it is still very early days. We expect traffic patterns to change over the next few days and weeks of the scheme's operation. Congestion charging will take time to settle down."

TfL said all the main payment channels (shops. Internet, text messaging and call centre) were up and running with no significant problems reported.

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