Tyne Pass will arrive from November 8th' bringing faster more reliable journeys to drivers in the North East using the Tyne Tunnels - with less queuing' reduced CO2 emissions' as well as bringing over 80 new jobs to the region
“Imagine driving along the A19′ beneath the £75m Silverlink underpass’ through the Tyne Tunnel with no stopping’ no hunting for change or getting stuck behind a driver’ before driving over the new bridge at Testos'” says Phil Smith’ CEO of TT2 which operates Tyne Tunnels.
“This is the vision that will come true shortly as we complete our ‘Tyne Pass’ project to implement open road tolling and in the process remove the toll plazas that have been a feature of the tunnels for over 50 years.”
Shaun Simmons’ Programme Manager at TT2′ says: “We’ve spoken with about 150’000 customers over the last several years’ and what came back to us time and again from our customers is that ‘if we have to pay a toll then make it easy for us’.”
Feedback from many pointed to Dartford Tunnel and Mersey Gateway as much easier travel routes than queuing at the Tyne Tunnel and so a threeyear project began to change the system.
The new system will soon come into operation’ and although it will be a few months until the plazas are demolished’ there will be no more guessing the quickest lane or jostling to get back into two lanes.
Traffic will move quicker’ and journeys will be more reliable promises Customer Experience Manager Chris Ward. He says: “The A19′ like all roads’ just gets busier each year’ and with the limitation on the number of toll lanes due to the width of the land available’ all we could see was queues getting worse. Solutions like contactless would just make traffic even slower causing more delays. This will mean people just see dual carriageway all the way through making their journey easier and safer.”
TT2 started by implementing automatic number plate technology in 2018′ before implementing a series of stepping projects to full open road tolling.
There have been questions about removing cash payments’ but Project Manager Rachel Fawcett explains: “While the number of people paying by cash has plummeted over the past three years – barely a fifth of customers pay that way now’ we recognised at the outset that we would need to provide an alternative to online payment.”
Alternative methods of payment include a 24×7 telephone system where people can pay by card’ but also’ they can pay by cash or card at any of the 28’000 Paypoint retailers UK-wide. For convenience they can pay for up to 10 journeys at a time’ any time up to a year ahead. The nearest retailer is only 300m away from the tunnel.
Statistics on compliance have’ for months’ been published in a dashboard on the Tyne Tunnels website. Phil Smith explains: “They prove that the interim systems have done exactly what we hoped which is to help customers understand the changes. It has persuaded many to take out pre-paid accounts which are free to open’ free and convenient to use’ and give 10% discount on every journey no matter how infrequently you travel. “As a result’ we’ve seen compliance steadily improve and we are already at similar levels of non-compliance to Mersey Gateway and far lower than Dart Charge which has been operating for many years.” When the Tyne Pass system goes live that dashboard will be expanded to include numbers of customers who fail to pay on time’ what payment is received in enforcement and both numbers of and success in customers’ appeals. TT2 will provide more information’ quicker’ than any other operator in the UK.
Changes at the Tunnels are being communicated through informative and distinctive signs to help customers understand the need to pay and how to make payment and by when.
