Last Friday was an interesting day to be in London (more in my next travel column) as it marked the end of the first working week of the congestion charge.

You'll have seen the reports that last week wasn't typical because of school half term, but the early signs suggested to me that, despite all the foreboding, there are a lot of positives. Bear in mind, too, that success in London will bring a congestion charging system to your town centre before too long.

As my Friday meeting was in the city centre, I'd gone down from Durham on the splendid GNER service, arriving spot on time at King's Cross. There was a marked difference in my taxi ride to Piccadilly which took about half the usual time. Despite the fact that much of London's local transport system is far from perfect, thousands of people have clearly stopped taking cars into the zone. This is even more remarkable when you remember that the largely shambolic tube system is groaning even more with the Central Line out of action for many weeks after a derailment crash. That line was used by over 650,000 passengers a DAY, and they've all had to do something different too.

I had the best of the deal on Friday, with a fast and comfortable train journey into the heart of London and a nippy taxi ride through (comparatively) clearer streets.

In the end, though, carrots work better than sticks, and it's really about making sure that all parts of the jigsaw are in place. The "missing link" in my journey was the start. I had to leave my car at Durham station because there is effectively no usable link between my local station in Hartlepool and the main line. I noticed on the return journey that the list of linked stations announced over the train PA at Darlington doesn't even include Hartlepool any more. The set-up is still a farce. Towns around the Tees Valley need fast, regular and reliable links to the East Coast Main Line for a multitude of reasons. The scandal is highlighted even more when you see a successful operator like GNER showing how it should be done, to the shame of a regional railway system which is a joke.

Just to show that all is not sweetness and light with the congestion charge, I saw a curious effect on Friday evening, which is apparently repeated around the border of the zone. The charge runs until 6.30 pm and this means that the timing of an evening trip into the centre is crucial.

Near Regent's Park, I saw what appeared to be a traffic jam, but turned out to be, at 6.20 pm, a horde of cars hanging on to save the fiver. Frustrated traffic police were trying to move the cars on, but people simply edged forward, completed a three point turn, and looped back to re-join the queue! The whole effect was like a starting grid at Le Mans, with the same clouds of exhaust smoke. A bit of fine tuning in the system needed there I think.

Published: 26/02/2003