AN INTELLIGENT congestion charging system pioneered in Stockholm, in which tolls vary according to the time of day and charges are automatically deducted from a driver’s bank account, is being considered for London.

Transport for London (TfL) is sending a team to the Swedish capital to study the system with a view to adopting it in 2009.

Stockholm’s system has cut twice as much traffic as Ken Livingstone’s scheme, despite drivers paying an average of only £2 a day.

The Mayor of London raised the flat-rate daily charge by 60 per cent to £8 last summer but this failed to reduce traffic further.

Stockholm charges drivers each time they cross the city boundary. The toll starts at 75p between 6.30am and 7am and rises to a maximum of £1.50 between 7.30am and 8.30am.

It is capped at £5 per day but most drivers pay less than half that because they cross the boundary only twice, once on the way in to work and once on the way home.

Drivers in London have to remember to pay each day and can do so at a shop, by text message, online or by ringing a call centre. In Stockholm, more than 60 per cent of drivers have a credit card-sized electronic tag fitted on the windscreen behind the rear-view mirror. This is read electronically by beacons on overhead gantries that straddle the road at 18 points of entry to the city.

Screens on the gantries display the amount that will be charged at that time.

The system deducts payments from drivers’ bank accounts by direct debit and issues monthly statements showing the time of each crossing and the fee paid.

The tags are issued free and more than 420,000 drivers have fitted them since the scheme began on January 3.

Those who do not have tags are given five days to pay by post or at a shop. After that they are fined £5, which rises to £40 after four weeks.

In London the £8 charge rises to £10 if it is not paid by 10pm on the day a driver enters the charging zone. If it is still not paid by midnight the driver incurs a £50 fine that rises to £150 after 28 days.

The two cities have the same number of drivers entering the charging zone each day but drivers in London are five times more likely to be fined.

Mr Livingstone receives £70 million a year in fines, which accounts for more than half the annual profit from the scheme. Maria Svanelind, special adviser to Stockholm’s mayor, Annika Billstrom, said: “We have learnt from London’s mistakes and have a more modern system which the motorist sees as fair. We do not want to penalise people for forgetting to pay. We recognise that it sometimes takes a while to get round to remembering.”

Stockholm will have a referendum on September 17 to decide whether the scheme should continue.

Ms Svanelind said: “People will have had six months to judge whether they like the scheme. If they vote no, we will remove it. But we think most see the benefits of less congested roads.”

Olaf Sandstrom, a journalist for Stockholm’s Dagens Industri newspaper, said public opinion had initially been strongly against the scheme but was now more evenly balanced.

More than 2,000 people in Stockholm now drive to work earlier to be at their desks before charges begin at 6.30am.

As in London, the profits from the scheme are reinvested in transport. But Stockholm plans to spend a significant proportion on new roads, whereas Mr Livingstone has spent most of the proceeds on extra buses.

TfL is conducting a six-month trial in Southwark involving 500 vehicles equipped with tags and 19 gantries with electronic beacons.

Morten Bratlie, for Q Free, the Norwegian company that supplied the technology in Stockholm, said it had developed a new type of gantry which resembled a lamp post.

“It stretches out a bit further over the road than a normal lamp post but it is reasonably discreet. The beacon and the cameras for reading the numberplates can be hidden inside.”