Road pricing 'will take 10 years'

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The Government will have to deal with the problems of the cost to motorists and what to do with the data collected by road pricing technology before any scheme can be brought in, Sir Rod added.

He told the House of Commons Transport Committee: "I know road pricing is contentious and that people are concerned. It's going to take 10 years and you could argue that that is not very ambitious but I would argue that it is pretty ambitious.

"People are particularly worried about two things - the cost to motorists and what will be done with the data. To introduce widespread schemes you will need to tackle both of those problems."

Sir Rod, formerly British Airways chief executive, was giving evidence to the committee following his report to the Government, published last December, in which he argued - among other things - the case for road pricing to combat congestion.

He told the committee that road pricing had not been the major priority in his report and that road pricing was "a small piece in the big picture".

Sir Rod went on: "I see road pricing as a way of tackling the issue of congestion and the best places to start are the big areas of congestion. Road pricing as a mechanism will bring real benefits."

Sir Rod dismissed suggestions that his report was static, or a cop out, or unimaginative or not dynamic enough. He denied ministers or senior civil servants had proposed changes to his report and he said the reason it had been delayed was that he had asked for more time.

Sir Rod stressed that he was not against high-speed rail lines being introduced in Britain, but he was opposed to the ultra-high-speed Maglev line on both cost and technology grounds. He also said that the cross-London Crossrail scheme, although extremely expensive, was vital and that London would have enormous congestion challenges if Crossrail did not go ahead.

The current planning process for transport was "too uncertain, too long and far too expensive", he said. He added that he had tried not to favour any one transport mode over another in his report.