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Kind: captions
Language: en

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Behind me is the last surviving tollgate in
London,

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on a private road through Dulwich College.

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Back at the start of the 19th century,

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almost all the roads out of London were turnpikes,
toll roads.

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And it wasn't just London: across the country,
there were hundreds of turnpike trusts,

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private companies that had a government-approved
monopoly on one particular bit of road.

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They kept it in reasonable condition,

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at least by the horse-drawn standards of the day,

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and in exchange they could charge a toll.

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But travelling across country meant you'd
be paying tolls to

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half a dozen different and possibly-corrupt
companies as you went.

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Heck, just travelling across London you could
hit tollgate after tollgate after tollgate.

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Now, the Turnpike Trusts did some good: the
money paid for a decent road network.

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But they weren't popular: before the turnpikes
came along, the roads,

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although they were frequently rough and difficult
to travel on, were free.

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So there were complaints, and occasional riots,
but the turnpikes stood.

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But then along came the railways.

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Suddenly anyone who could afford to pay road tolls

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could also afford a faster and more comfortable option.

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So both people and freight moved to rail.

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The turnpike trusts started to collapse,

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local government took over all the roads,

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and by the time motorways came along,

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it was accepted that government collected tax,

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and then used that tax to build new roads.

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But what if history had turned out slightly
differently?

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Where would we be if all the roads were still
private,

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if every major route had a toll that went
not to government,

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like the Congestion Charge or modern American
turnpikes,

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but to a private company running it?

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If every time you drove onto London's Westway,

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you paid £5 to the Westway Corporation sponsored
by McDonalds?

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Well, actually, er, we would be in France.

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Most of the French autoroutes, the motorways there,

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are run by private companies, collecting tolls,
just like the old days.

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You don't need to visit some bizarre zeppelin-filled
alternate reality to find turnpikes --

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there are always zeppelins in alternate realities --

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all you need to do is cross the Channel.