Revealed: paying for congestion charge by text message to be axed

Diplomats owe millions of pounds in unpaid congestion charge fees
Jamie Bullen19 September 2016

Drivers will soon no longer be able to pay London’s congestion charge by text message, it can be revealed.

Transport for London confirmed it was axing its SMS payment service as part of a planned “raft of improvements”.

The payment method is being phased out this week ahead of a new website to be launched on Monday, with an app also set to be unveiled.

Currently, motorists can pay by text only on the day of travel if they have registered a customer account.

A TfL spokesman said figures showed around 150 people per day used text messages to pay the congestion charge, which equates to about 0.27 per cent of the total amount.

It comes nearly a year since outsourcer Capita took over the day-to-day operation of the congestion charge after it signed a five-year deal with TfL in January 2014.

TfL pledged the appointment of the new service provider “will deliver improved efficiency with faster, simpler payment processes”.

Paul Cowperthwaite, TfL’s General Manager for Road User Charging, said: “We are improving our Congestion Charge system with a new website offering customers more services and a new payment app.

"As part of the upgrade we are removing the text payment service, which is used by a very small number of people paying the charge each day."

In April, Transport for London was urged to merge the congestion charging zone with the low emission zone as far out as the North and South circular roads by 2019 to tackle London’s toxic air pollution.

Independent thinktank IPPR said the zone, which currently costs £11.50 to enter, could be used to reinvest in public transport, cycling and walking.

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