Currently reading: M4 bus lane axed by Government
Transport secretary Phillip Hammond will scrap M4 bus lane

The M4 bus lane is due to be axed at the end of the year.

Transport secretary Philip Hammond is expected to announce the closure of the controversial 3.5-mile lane near Heathrow airport at next week's Conservative Party conference.

The lane will be suspended for 18 months between 24 December and July 2012 when it will be used during the 2012 Olympic Games.

After then, it is expected it will be scrapped permanently.

It will mean that all motorists will be able to drive the entire London-bound carriageway on the section of motorway between junctions three and two.

At present, it can only be used by buses, licensed black taxis and motorcycles.

Hammond is expected to say: “I can announce today that from the end of December until the Olympics the M4 bus lane will be suspended. And once the Olympics are over, my intention is to scrap it permanently.”

The lane was introduced in 1999 by former transport secretary John Prescott.

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ordinary bloke 2 October 2010

Re: M4 bus lane axed by Government

FastRenaultFan wrote:
It works here what ye British need too do is have a semi-state owned Bus company with a reliable and frequent service on roots with business potential
We've had a succession of Governments that have been obsessed with privatising any and everything they can lay their hands on; Tories because it was ideologically sound not to have state run businesses and NuLabour because because they wanted the money so they could spend it in their supporters' constituencies or waste it on "Big Government" projects for their supporters to work on. All completely bonkers. Things like the utilities and public transport need to be publicly owned so that private business doesn't just run them for their convenience and not the public.We need to get control of these things back out of private hands and run on long-term business plans by non-political, but accountable, organisations. Glad to see the back of the M4 bus lane - really daft idea in isolation on its own.

michael knight 1 October 2010

Re: M4 bus lane axed by Government

It makes no difference! Simply pushes the 3 into 2 flow a few miles further east on the M4.

jerry99 1 October 2010

Re: M4 bus lane axed by Government

I am sad to see it go. For 18 months I worked in London during the week and travelled to and from Cardiff for the weekend on the Megabus. If I caught the Monday bus at 05.45 I could off at Victoria coach station before 09.00 and all for £10 or less each way!

Made far more sense than Worst Great Western or the £60 in fuel I spent on a hire car for one weekend and the bus lane meant it was faster by bus as well. But I suppose the motorists in Reading, Bracknell and the rest of Thames Valley with their company cars did not see it that way.