THE Government has committed the remaining participants in its motorway tolling trials programme to tests at the Transport Research Laboratory later this year.

Only two of the original eight consortia who tendered for inclusion in the trials are still on board after numerous delays to the programme and doubts over the Government's political commitment to the concept of road-pricing. The initial phase of the trials at the TRL in Berkshire was scheduled to start in January, followed by 'live' testing of the tolling technology on a stretch of the M3 this summer.

Transport minister John Watts signed agreements with consortia led by ANT Bosch and GEC-Marconi and confirmed the government's commitment to the trials programme, which is now scheduled to start later this year.