A CONTROVERSIAL charging scheme could come into force to ease on one of the county's most congested stretches of motorway.

This is just one of a package of transport plans, costing more than £260million, being considered by hard-pressed highways bosses to improve travel conditions on the section of the M60 from Junctions 18 (Simister) to 12 (Eccles).

The recommendations form the conclusion of the M60 JETTS Multi-Modal study, commissioned by the Government Office for the North West after the Transport White Paper acknowledged this section of the M60 was "heavily overloaded" with up to 185,000 vehicles on an annual average weekday.

The worst problems are between junctions 12 and 15 (the M602 and M61) where regular standing traffic and high accident rates are caused by vehicles changing lanes, the short distance between junctions, and variations in gradients.

All forms of transport came under the microscope during the study. But the consultants concluded that improving public transport services alone would only reduce congestion by two per cent and transferring freight to rail would only reduce traffic by a small amount.

The consultants stressed that as well as investment in public transport, improvements to the highway network were also required to reduce forecast traffic congestion.

Among their recommendations was the introduction of area-wide road user charging in Greater Manchester, including the motorway network, to deal with congestion in the longer term beyond 2011, providing it is part of a national strategy to manage road traffic.

Other recommendations include:

Adding a fourth lane to the M60 anti-clockwise between Junctions 15 and 13.

Segregating through M62 traffic from the local M60 traffic, including a bypass at Junction 12.

Additional bus corridors and upgrading interchange facilities.

Higher-frequency local bus services and enhancing traffic management such as use of hard shoulders and variable speed limits enforced by cameras.

Reducing weaving movements to improve safety.

Peter Jackson, study manager for consultants Faber Maunsell, said: "The preferred strategy would reduce congestion, provide more reliable journey times for long distance traffic and make public transport more attractive.

"Public transport, freight and traditional demand management measures on their own would not the solve the problems on the M60 between junctions 12-18. There is, therefore, a case for highways investment to meet the study objectives."

He went on: "In the longer term, area wide road user charging would be effective in reducing the growth of traffic in Greater Manchester as part of a national strategy to manage demand."