Warburton Toll Bridge — Local services in Trafford

I’ll preface this by stating that the 2nd attendant on the return journey was reasonable and helpful, but the same can’t be said for the first attendant I encountered.

After discovering whilst on the toll bridge that I would be charged 12p, something I wasn’t overly concerned about, I was approached by a female attendant to pay the toll. After explaining that I didn’t carry cash on me, which I’d argue is increasingly the case in these pandemic times, I was met with passive aggressive and frankly rude exchanges suggesting, “there are signs everywhere”. After asking whether they accept card payments, I was told abruptly that they did not and that this would incur a card fee.

I was made to feel stupid and unreasonable which for 12p hardly seems worth it. On the return journey I paid both fees, with a much politer attendant who explained that paying the two fees in this way was fine.

My constructive feedback would be the following: Anticipate that the vast majority of people will not always have cash to hand these days and provide an alternative payment method. Please be polite. For the sake of 12p, is passive aggressiveness really...

2023 and there are still people sat in a toll booth made in the 1900's manually taking 12p (cash only!) while the road itself is obliterated with pot holes, the bridge has seen far better days, the side fences etc are atrocious and the traffic caused by the (quite often single manned) archaic method of payment is absolutely horrendous.

Apparently the bridge has been making a loss for the last 5 years so they're putting the prices up, only one question - what did you do with the money for the 130 years before, because it certainly wasn't used to upkeep the bridge ever!

If you're not going to use the money towards upkeep then at least invest in automatic systems to improve...

This was without a shadow of a doubt one of the most obscure moments of my life on the road. Without warning, I found myself presented with a small, tarnished hovel containing a hobbit of a man. 12p, he stated. We had no change, this is 2024. When we advised this politely, the hobbit man exclaimed verbatim, "you're on camera you have to pay". With a queue on traffic building and no way out, I was forced into handing over 10 of my hard earned British sterling to angry bilbo, who returned 9 pounds and 75 pence change. We drove over the bridge, which was beyond repair and left for warrington filled with an overwhelming sense of deflation, angst...