Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh
Anything that gets traffic off the roads is a good thing - you have to wonder, if it such a good thing, why they didn’t do it before?
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I’m not sure what HMG could do about it. HMG couldn’t unilaterally close the border to HGVs while we were in the EU. They couldn’t introduce additional tolls for only foreign HGVs; they would have had to introduce them for domestic traffic as well, with all the additional cost to businesses that would entail. As long as the “UK land bridge” was quicker and cheaper for hauliers transiting to and from Ireland they would continue to use it. It is our exit from the EU that has allowed this to happen, though it is the side-effect of additional form-filling rather than a deliberate government traffic management strategy that has brought it about.
Of course once the new bureaucracy beds in, traffic may return to Dublin-Holyhead. The route via the UK is still significantly quicker for most destinations at either end. But I hope in the meantime the government takes note of the altered traffic patterns and pollution levels and draws useful lessons from them.