Mr Piper said the Minister for Roads and Transport, David Campbell, had admitted that during the morning peak it takes on average 3� minutes to travel the 800 metres along Main Road 217 between Excelsior Parade and Bay Street.

"This is an average of less than 14 kmh," Mr Piper said. "At that rate the 28 km trip to Newcastle would take two hours!

"The Toronto section of that trip is totally unacceptable."

According to Mr Piper, traffic is held up at the short stretch between Thorne and Bay streets. There are five intersections within 400 metres which he says become congested due to the merging of lanes, the lack of dedicated turning lanes and the apparently poor phasing of traffic signals.

"In peak periods and at many other times this strip is subject to gridlock, with the intersections holding up enough traffic to block one another," Mr Piper said.

"This section of road has a very bad accident history because of its poor capacity and layout," Mr Piper added.

All but one of the properties on the western side of this strip have been acquired for road widening. The one remaining property has been redeveloped to allow for the new lanes.

"It would be very simple to fix this problem once the decision is made," Mr Piper said.

"This is the main road used by thousands of commuters and the reality is that the problem doesn't need to exist."