1.3 In 2000, the Government commissioned a consortium of consultants led by Kellogg, Brown and Root to examine existing and future problems and produce a long-term sustainable strategy for the M25. Their objectives included developing a strategy that made the best use of the existing network to reduce congestion and improve journey time reliability, and that reduced growth in traffic demand on the orbital network.
1.4 The consultants assessed various strategies, including:
• best practice traffic management, for example, during roadworks and incidents;
• alternatives to car travel, principally by improving public transport;
• ways to reduce traffic levels, including employer travel plans or user charging; and
• increasing the capacity of the M25.
1.5 The consultants reported in 2002.3 Their preferred strategy was widening most of the remaining three-lane sections to four lanes, combined with area-wide user charging. They concluded that area-wide user charging (charging most users on most roads in the study area) would be the most effective method of reducing both the volume and length of commuting trips by car on the M25. The Department subsequently published a study on the feasibility of road charging4, concluding that a national area-wide system would not be technologically feasible before 2014.
1.6 In the absence of user charging, the consultants recommended widening if combined with measures to reduce and control demand.
1.7 In 2003, the Department responded to the consultants' report. The Department supported widening five sections of the M25 together with developing proposals for demand management and improved management of the motorway. The Secretary of State approved these proposals in July 2003, and in April 2004 the five widening schemes entered the Agency's strategic plan for improving the network (Figure 2 overleaf). The Agency considered demand management as a separate project.
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3 Orbit: transport solutions around London, November 2002.
4 Road Pricing Feasibility Study, 2004.