Tyne Tunnel

S

Shandy drinker

Striker
putting those daft traffic lights on north bound A185 Jarrow slip road next week and permanent

After " the successful 5 day trial in MArch"
from what I experienced it caused delays, traffic to back up along the A185, blocked the south end roundabout and the 4 blokes hanging round the lights weren't taking any notice nor could they assess trafci impact from road level.

I suggest e-mailing Tyne Tunnel and Tyne and Wear transport users committee if you don't agree.
Service has got worse over last few months and also since Silverlink opened
regaulrly massive q's at booths both North and South
 


Shandy drinker said:
putting those daft traffic lights on north bound A185 Jarrow slip road next week and permanent

After " the successful 5 day trial in MArch"
from what I experienced it caused delays, traffic to back up along the A185, blocked the south end roundabout and the 4 blokes hanging round the lights weren't taking any notice nor could they assess trafci impact from road level.

I suggest e-mailing Tyne Tunnel and Tyne and Wear transport users committee if you don't agree.
Service has got worse over last few months and also since Silverlink opened
regaulrly massive q's at booths both North and South
Click to expand...

The queue has got smaller going north as the traffic is now held up at Testos so it’s slower getting through.

The queue southbound is largely due to the faster flow of traffic coming from the Silverlink.

I understand that you have queues at a booth in busy periods but at least part of it is due to people wanting to pay by card. If you don’t have money on you then you should be sent back to go and find a cash point and get some out. Or maybe have a machine beside the change machines where you can either draw cash or purchase a 1 time ticket using a card.
 
Big Toe said:
The queue has got smaller going north as the traffic is now held up at Testos so it’s slower getting through.

The queue southbound is largely due to the faster flow of traffic coming from the Silverlink.

I understand that you have queues at a booth in busy periods but at least part of it is due to people wanting to pay by card. If you don’t have money on you then you should be sent back to go and find a cash point and get some out. Or maybe have a machine beside the change machines where you can either draw cash or purchase a 1 time ticket using a card.
Click to expand...

or have contacless payment machines on each booth, like the rest of the civilised world
Shandy drinker said:
already have as my science would appear to be superior to there's
Click to expand...

i worked for/with the highways agency for a few years on road extensions and upgrades, believe me, there is an unholy amount of science goes into designing road layouts, traffic light sequencing, speed limits, sign positions etc..

this government don't waste a penny on public spending, they go to the far end of a fart of scrutiny before they spend a single penny. and people driving past seeing a traffic jam always think they know better.
 
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tunstallhill said:
or have contacless payment machines on each booth, like the rest of the civilised world


i worked for/with the highways agency for a few years on road extensions and upgrades, believe me, there is an unholy amount of science goes into designing road layouts, traffic light sequencing, speed limits, sign positions etc..

this government don't waste a penny on public spending, they go to the far end of a fart of scrutiny before they spend a single penny. and people driving past seeing a traffic jam always think they know better.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't you think a bang up to date payment system would have been sorted at the time of planning and building the new tunnel.
Is it £2 now ? Been ages since i last went through.
 
ivanthereasonable said:
Wouldn't you think a bang up to date payment system would have been sorted at the time of planning and building the new tunnel.
Is it £2 now ? Been ages since i last went through.
Click to expand...

i've 'complained' to them a few times about it. i got a reply one time saying that it was going to cost something like £300,000 (can't remember exact figure) to install them and they didn't have any plans to install them soon. i can't believe that shops, even mobile sandwich vans, can have wireless/bluetooth contactless payment recievers, and tyne tunnel can't get 10 of them set up, to charge £2 every time. wouldnt even need to type anything in, just £2 £2 £2 £2 over and over.

it would cut they queues down by a decent percentage. Tyne Tunnel is a private company though as far as i am aware, they know that people use it out of necessity rather than choice. they don't really need to do anything other than keep it open.
 
tunstallhill said:
or have contacless payment machines on each booth, like the rest of the civilised world
Click to expand...
They put out a message as to why they're not doing this. Basically, it would take away from the goal of removing the barriers entirely.
Plus, apparently it would take about a year to agree the system with the banks, for reasons I don't understand.

On top of that, they think contactless would be preferred to pre-pay - and its pre-pay that's far far faster. So there is some logic in it.
 
PTR said:
They put out a message as to why they're not doing this. Basically, it would take away from the goal of removing the barriers entirely.
Plus, apparently it would take about a year to agree the system with the banks, for reasons I don't understand.

On top of that, they think contactless would be preferred to pre-pay - and its pre-pay that's far far faster. So there is some logic in it.
Click to expand...

well have 2 contactless lanes and 4 pre pay lanes. see what people prefer. and personally, my priority would be getting myself through faster, rather than what payment method.

if they are planning on removing the barriers like they have on the dartford crossing then fair enough. i imagine the admin involved in chasing 100's of people every day musnt be that bad
Frijj said:
Hang on, the booths are cash only?! Wtf what year is it?
Click to expand...

aye, or else you press the button and the bloke comes tootling out of the office with the card payment machine, which struggles to connect to its server, then its insert card, type in amount, type in pin, wait for approval etc..
whilst a massive queue forms behind you
 
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tunstallhill said:
well have 2 contactless lanes and 4 pre pay lanes. see what people prefer. and personally, my priority would be getting myself through faster, rather than what payment method.

if they are planning on removing the barriers like they have on the dartford crossing then fair enough. i imagine the admin involved in chasing 100's of people every day musnt be that bad
Click to expand...

The pre-pay queues are 3 times faster than the others, so I'd like to see more of them too - but how?

North Bound, there's the split in destinations, with the 2 right hand booths for people turning right. So putting a prepay-only in those 2 might be a bit much.
Perhaps the 2 far left ones could be prepay?

Sound Bound, I'd add an extra one on the right hand side, no question.
 
tunstallhill said:
well have 2 contactless lanes and 4 pre pay lanes. see what people prefer. and personally, my priority would be getting myself through faster, rather than what payment method.

if they are planning on removing the barriers like they have on the dartford crossing then fair enough. i imagine the admin involved in chasing 100's of people every day musnt be that bad


aye, or else you press the button and the bloke comes tootling out of the office with the card payment machine, which struggles to connect to its server, then its insert card, type in amount, type in pin, wait for approval etc..
whilst a massive queue forms behind you
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this.

I have my doubts about how fair or effective (payment collection wise) the boothless Dartford tunnel is, but we use it for summer hols and we are much quicker through.
Doesn't eradicate traffic build up, but in my experience, it reduces it.
 
tunstallhill said:
i've 'complained' to them a few times about it. i got a reply one time saying that it was going to cost something like £300,000 (can't remember exact figure) to install them and they didn't have any plans to install them soon. i can't believe that shops, even mobile sandwich vans, can have wireless/bluetooth contactless payment recievers, and tyne tunnel can't get 10 of them set up, to charge £2 every time. wouldnt even need to type anything in, just £2 £2 £2 £2 over and over.

it would cut they queues down by a decent percentage. Tyne Tunnel is a private company though as far as i am aware, they know that people use it out of necessity rather than choice. they don't really need to do anything other than keep it open.
Click to expand...
Sounds like bullshit to me. You can get a chip and pin machine for 60 quid a month that will use a sim in case the internet goes down.
 
RossTheNinja said:
Sounds like bullshit to me. You can get a chip and pin machine for 60 quid a month that will use a sim in case the internet goes down.
Click to expand...
Yes you can, and even a free one depending on the contract you agree to. The issue is that you can’t charge someone for using a card now. Tyne Tunnel will get charged a fee by the merchant which can’t be passed on to the driver
 
Big Toe said:
Yes you can, and even a free one depending on the contract you agree to. The issue is that you can’t charge someone for using a card now. Tyne Tunnel will get charged a fee by the merchant which can’t be passed on to the driver
Click to expand...
Aye....but they put their prices up claiming it is due to maintenance costs
 

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