Road tolls reduce benefits of A14 improvements across Cambridgeshire

The final report from the DfT’s study into the A14 trunk road across Cambridgeshire reveals how sensitive the business case for the preferred road investment package is to toll levels

Andrew Forster

07 December 2012

This diagram depicts Option 7, which Atkins used to test the impact of tolls. The road improvements feature in the DfTs preferred investment programme announced this summer, although the DfT has not decided if the A14 through Huntingdon should be detrunked.

Using tolls to part-fund an improvement to the A14 across Cambridgeshire significantly reduces the scheme’s business case, according to the findings of the third and final report of the A14 Study commissioned by the DfT.

The report concludes that levying a £2 toll for cars and £4 toll for lorries (in 2011 prices) on the improved section of road would wipe out the entire economic benefits of the road improvement package. But a lower charge of £1 for cars and £2 for...