Stockholm’s congestion charge trial began on 3 January and will continue until the end of July 2006. The test period will be followed of a public referendum in the mid of September to decide whether the Stockholmers want the road taxes to be permanent.

It is estimated that the trail will cost over 2 billion kronor, not to mention the charges that will affect motorists every day. All owners of vehicles registered in Sweden will have to pay a congestion charge if they drive into or out of the Stockholm city, every weekday between 6.30 am and 6.30 pm. In total 18 payment stations have been located at various entry points to the city centre. The daily charges vary from 10 to 20 kronor and the maximum charge per day is 60 kronor. The taxes must be paid within five days. Some types of vehicles will however be exempted from taxes, this will apply among others to buses, taxis and environmentally-friendly cars.

The aim of the trial is to reduce traffic, increase the accessibility on the busiest roads and reduce emissions of health-endangering pollutants and carbon dioxide.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2006 at 9:47 am and is filed under Sweden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.