About the Milan Congestion Charge.

Following a successful trial, Milan 's City Council is now charging car drivers a fee based on their EU specified pollution levels.

With the measure, the City Hall expescts to drastically reduce the smog levels in the city center by almost a third. A big deal given Milan 's reputation as one of Europe 's 10 most polluted cities.

The charge does not affect the following:

• mopeds,
• motorbikes,
• alternative fuel vehicles such as LPG, CNG, hybrid or electric vehicles.
• Gasoline engines falling under Euro III or IV rules,or
• diesels under Euro IV

The Ecopass system is based on five levels depending on the vehicle engine. The daily charge is between EUR10 for the most polluting cars to EUR2 for the least polluting cars. Cameras at 43 electric gates monitor traffic entering the 8km zone and those that don't pay will receive fines starting from EUR70. The fee applies between 7:30am and 7:30pm Monday to Friday.

City Hall expects to generate about EUR24 million in revenues which will be used to pay for public transport.

The scheme appears to be succesful with traffic down by 22.7% or 26.7% excluding public transport vehicles. This has resulted in average speeds increasing by 11.3%. 9.1% more people are now also using the Metropolitana. Furthermore, the highest reduction in car usage came from the most polluting cars (those under Euro I, II and III norms). The number of these cars has fallen by 40% as they have to pay the highest charge.

There was also a strong environmental benefit with particulates down 26%, NOx down by 21% and ammonia down by 40%.

For further information see www.commune.milano.it/ecopass

For further information on the London Congestion Charge see http://www.nocongestion chargefines.co.uk