Tuesday, February 9, 2010
M6 Toll shunned as charges rise
It opened in 2003 amid a blaze of publicity after a £900 million construction project, hailed as the future of road transport in Britain.
But today the M6 Toll is constantly criticised for its lower than expected levels of use, and there have been calls for it to be nationalised.
Passenger figures have fallen since reaching a peak of 55,000 a day in 2006, when it was boosted by roadworks on the M6.
Last month operators Midland Expressway Limited said peak time tolls would increase to £4.70 for cars and £9.40 for lorries. At the same time the firm revealed just 43,000 drivers a day were using the road during the summer.
When Alistair Darling – then Transport Secretary, now Chancellor – opened the 27-mile route five years ago it was thought drivers would flock to a free-flowing motorway alternative to the clogged M6 through Birmingham and the, Black Country. Traffic figures of 75,000 vehicles a day were expected.
But initial toll rates of £11 for lorries kept haulage firms away. Although that fee was later reduced, it has edged up again over recent years.
Paul McLean, transport manager at Coven haulage firm K Transport Services, said: “With 63 trucks on the go every day, we can’t afford to use it. We occasionally get a call from one of our drivers who is running a late or stuck in traffic, asking for authorisation, but it has to be an emergency for us to allow a driver to use the M6 Toll.
“It doesn’t really help us in the West Midlands – it seems mostly tailored drivers heading south from the north. The only people I know who use it are trying to avoid delays on the M6 to get to Birmingham International Airport.”
At the Road Haulage Association, which represents 9,500 drivers and companies, spokeswoman Kate Gibbs said: “At times like this, when haulage companies are trying to save every penny, they can’t even consider extra expense on a journey.
“It is a wonderful road and offers an alternative to congestion on the M6, but people don’t want to pay extra just to get from A to B. It was the first toll road, and if it was an experiment it has not been as successful as one might have hoped.”
Initial enthusiasm for the clear road has paled for ordinary drivers too. Hugh Bladon, of the Association of British Drivers, said: “My understanding is that there are times when it is almost completely empty. They might get more people if they were to remove the 70mph speed limit and make it more like a less-restricted German autobahn.”
John Murray, president of Walsall Chamber of Commerce, said: “We are seeing our local roads just as busy as ever and the stretch of tarmac that was supposed to solve the problem remains dramatically under-used.
“It can be argued that the M6 Toll is a failed experiment in that it has failed to ease congestion.”
Midland Expressway Ltd boss Tom Fanning today defended the toll motorway, saying an average of 45,000 vehicles every day had been taken from the M6.
“I would consider this a great achievement and our loyal customers have embraced the concept of a tolled motorway as it ensures absolute reliability through the dedication of my staff.”
And he defended the rise in toll prices because of the need to secure a return on the £900 million investment.
Mr Fanning added: “Increasing tolls is not a decision we take lightly. In fact, this is only the fourth time since opening that we have made this adjustment.
“The road was built by the private sector with huge risks undertaken particularly with regard to traffic levels. The investment in building the road and the costs of operating it and maintaining our premier service and free flow must be part of the consideration when setting the toll rate.”
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Well, its another white elephant. I have never used it nor had reason to use it.
Nor would I pay to use it. I believe it is deliberately sited to mislead drivers into using it. And the signs don’t give you enough warning.
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There should be far more charging, pollution is priority not greedy car owners making unneccesary journeys- taxing people off the roads is the only way forward..lets do it
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Ah well, thats 45,000 vehicles not using the M6 on its busiest parts.
So very slight reduction in road wear and tear, small reduction in traffic jam sizes and quick travel for those willing to pay.
I’m fine with it, just can’t see me ever using it.
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What a surprise! The M6 start work on speed restrictions due to take more than a year and the toll put up their charges. I wonder why they’ve done that???
Money grabbing tory idiots.
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The M6 Toll has been a complete waste of time and money. Miles of green belt were torn up for a road which hasn’t made the slightest dent in congestion.
If the authorities are serious about reducing congestion they should make the Toll road free to use for through traffic and put a toll on the existing M6 to encourage commuters onto public transport, which should be made more attractive with cheaper fairs, reliable services and facilities such as free park and ride.
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Nationalise it and stop early morning conjestion it makes sense. We pay enough for the road network as it is so why be forced to pay more?
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No 6 you need to live the real world- too many cars on our roads
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It is a regular feature in poorer regions of Europe and elsewhere that a lot of the traffic ends up back on saturated main roads.For the same reasons.
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The reality is that this toll road is not there to provide a public service but to operate at a profit.
It’s not in Midland Expressway’s interest to increase traffic numbers because that would cause more wear and tear on the road and eat into their profits. If they can make a decent return on their investment by increasing the tolls then that’s what they’ll do.
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This and other threads are continually walking round and ignoring the root cause of this problem! ………… there is only one correspondent to this thread that has illustrated this …………. “THERE ARE TOO MANY CARS ON THE BRITISH ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE” ……… TORQUAY MAN go to the top of the class! ……………
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As per usual we got it all round the wrong way. The new road should have been free and the old stretch of the M6 between jcn 9 and jcn 4 should have been tolled.This would have kept all the junction hoppers taking their kids to school etc off, and let the people that REALLY need motorway access to the Cities a clear run.
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All they need to do is lower the prices to more like £2 for a car and adjust the peak and off-peak times to make it fairer. More people will use it and then their turnover and profits will increase. If numbers doubled or trebled because of a lower toll it would still be quick and effective, there’s plenty of capacity.
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whats better five cars at two pound or one car at four pounds seventy its just maths or in other words common sense
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Torquay Man – are you only interested in driving between OBESE Wolverhampton and even OBESER Torquay?
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M6 Toll’s marketing definitely needs to be a bit more savvy.
For example, at the moment the company offers an underwhelming 5% discount for drivers who use electonic ‘tag’ accounts instead of cash. However, why don’t M6 Toll instead offer ‘tag’ account holders unlimited use of the road for, say, £2000 per annum for a HGV – in the same way that bus companies offer discounts and unlimited travel to passengers who buy season tickets.
That way, M6 Toll gets big money up front, hauliers have an incentive to maximalise the numbers of journeys per truck in order to achieve big savings (under £3 each way as compared to £9 at present), and everyone else benefits because fewer HGVs will end up clogging up the Ray Hall interchange.
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why should we pay again for something we are all ready paying for were are our car tax going i thought this was payed on our cars to make improvments to our roads not to make some people richer it a nother scam for us poor drivers
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I Travel from Manchester to southampton on a regular basis and have never used it and never intend to, It actually makes my Journey .1 Miles longer.
I would rather sit in traffic for an hour than pay them prices !!!
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British road users pay almost 10 times the amount in tax than this government spends on the roads.
The population continues to increase and we need roads like the M6toll to provide the capacity needed.
It should be nationalised with some of the money drivers’ already pay into the treasury.
This would relieve congestion, emissions and reduce journey time.
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Torquay Man : In previous articles you have a) slated the midlands and claim to have moved South, b) slagged of the Black Country. Now you seem to have become a tree hugger. Please stay South or at least keep quiet!
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16 – spot on Joseph.
Where does our road tax go ?
Where does the 70% duty on fuel go ?
Where does the over-inflated tax on new vehicles go ?
not on maintaining the road infrastructure, thats for sure !!!!
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I use the toll road to commute from Wolverhampton to Solihull and have a tag account (paid for by me, not my employer). I think Ray is right about the appalling pricing model for regular customers and, since last year’s annual increase, I have been reducing my use of the toll road. It wouldn’t take much more of an increase for me to resort to public transport altogether, inconvenient and time-consuming as it is, involving a bus, two trains and a walk across Birmingham. Far from looking after its so-called ‘loyal customers’ Midland Expressway seems determined to treat tag customers as cash-cows and, if they’re not careful, will push us all away when they should be trying to tempt us to use the road more.
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Midland Expressway Ltd boss Tom Fanning today defended the toll motorway,”.. it ensures absolute reliability through the dedication of my staff.”
Wsn’t it closed a few weeks ago after an accident?
Seems like this chap has a selective memory or really doesn’t know the meaning of “absolute reliability”.
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totally agree with you Bob! The rude man called me an idiot and told me to keep going to the job centre! 1) I am not an idiot – proud to be from W’ton does not make me an idiot! and 2) don’t need to go to the job centre!
He needs to get a life and stop being so personal!
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I pay high tax, high fuel bills, high vat, and high everything else, we are ripped off for everything, i will give up driving before i would use the toll road.
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13. Geoff, I reckon the way the money men at ME think, 1 car at £4.70 would be better because of the reduced wear and tear on the road surface. Road maintenance is very expensive.
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Bob – I couldn’t agree with you more. Why is this person even reading our newspaper if he doesn’t like the area?
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Oh Torquay Boy you really dont live in the real world do you? If most of us had a choice we wouldnt use flipping cars! I have to commute to work and do choose the car. I had the misfortune of using the train and bus to get to work a couple of weeks ago and what a miserable experience that was! The train pulled into the station with not one seat free! Half of the train had to stand for the half hour journey! This rotten experience cost me over three times as much as my usual car journey and took longer! The M6 toll is an overpriced rip off and has not fulfilled the very reason it was built in the first place. That being to ease the gridlock on the M6. It should be nationailsed. Torquay boy go and hug some trees!
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Has anyone here actually used the toll road!? It is actually pretty good, much faster then the M6. This gives motorists a choice, take it or leave it.
24. Taxes are not high in this country – try living in Denmark or Norway, if you are fed up go to Italy where taxes are lower but there are virtually no public services.
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24. dont drive then, muppet!
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Hated turnpikes were mainly abolished in Britain 200 years ago… now we have let Labour (Prescott not the Tories) foist the ludicrous M6 Toll, on us. Most sensible people boycott it, only the well-off, desperate, the confused or corporate users are crass enough to pay £4.50 to get from one crowded stretch of road to another. It was planned as the Birmingham Northern Relief Road… now it is the Midland Expressway to make money for the Australian bank that financed it. It should be part of the main motorway network. Tolls distort traffic and penalise the less well-off most. They are wrong and should be scrapped. As for reducing traffic… make public transport more efficient by all means, but we are a society geared-up to cars and we cannot tax people off the roads without harming our fragile economy. Cars are not bad per se… we need more efficent, less polluting cars and trucks, and more rail and canal frieght for sure. But the Greens have got it wrong when they say it must be “One not the other”.
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Hated turnpikes were mainly abolished in Britain 200 years ago… now we have let Labour (Prescott not the Tories) foist the ludicrous M6 Toll, on us. Most sensible people boycott it, only the well-off, desperate, the confused or corporate users are crass enough to pay £4.50 to get from one crowded stretch of road to another. It was planned as the Birmingham Northern Relief Road… now it is the Midland Expressway to make money for the Australian bank that financed it. It should be part of the main motorway network. Tolls distort traffic and penalise the less well-off most. They are wrong and should be scrapped. As for reducing traffic… make public transport more efficient by all means, but we are a society geared-up to cars and we cannot tax people off the roads without harming our fragile economy. Cars are not bad per se… we need more efficent, less polluting cars and trucks, and more rail and canal frieght for sure. But the Greens have got it wrong when they say it must be “One not the other”.
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Freedom of individual movement is the key to a prosperous and democtatic society.
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It is too expensive however using it does keep my journey time between Stafford and Norwich under 3 hours so that is a reasonable trade off for me. What is required on a broader view is a widening the A14 and the A11 to 3 lines each carriageway. As both become log jammed by the smallest of problems.
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Reading threads like this one makes me thank God that I live where I do.
The only major jams we suffer is a herd of milkers going from field to parlor twice a day!
P.S. And almost zero frost or ice.
Up The Wolves
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The entrances onto the toll road off the M6 have been deliberately designed to guide the unwary onto the toll road. If you think you are keeping straight on the M6 you end up on the toll by default. You actually have to detour to stay on the M6. This is disgraceful.
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For most of the day the saving in journey time is probaly only 15 minutes or less; so why pay £5 for such a small improvement. Charges for all vehicles need to be no more than £1 to make it worthwhile for drivers to change to the Toll road in the numbers required to ease congestion and meet revenue requirements.
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Greg Penkridgeman.
The road does not do what it was originally set up for. The public Enquiry was for a Northern Relief Road to take all the traffic that went through to Coventry and beyond and relive the traffic on the M6. There was also a proposal to complete the “ring” by constructing the western section that would take the traffic through to the M5 at Bromsgrove. Manchester built what is now the M60 to form a ring around their city. It is free to use. The M25 around London is also free to all users. Birmingham as usual gets half a job and has to pay through the nose for the prevelege. Why is that the West Midlands is treated as an experiment by the Department of Transport? Why has Manchester widened most of the M60 to 4 lanes? Why is the M1 from Junction 6 to 10 and is being widened at the Tax payers expense? The proposal to relieve congestion on the M6 to Manchester is to have peak hour running on the hard shoulder. Why not a proper 4 lane motorway? This would be much safer. The reason is that the West Midlands is starved of proper investment so it can go elsewhere. Until someone stands up and is counted, the motorway system around Birmingham will always be third rate. The operators of the Toll road should drop their price to £1.00. The same as going over the Dartford Bridge. If that does not make a difference to the congestion I’ll eat my hat. An Alternative is to move the Scottish Border south to the junction with the M1. We will have no tolls, free prescriptions, free university places and much more. The Minister for Transport needs to get out of London and give Birmingham what it needs- A proper 4 lane Orbital Motorway, financed by Central Government. Stop procastinating and sort the problem out before the whole system grinds to halt when Spagetti Junction collapses. Torquay man put that in your pipe and smoke it.
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How can this lack of use come as a surprise?
You only have to look at France (almost all tolls) and Germany (almost all free) to get an idea of what usage patterns will be like.
France was late getting in on the motorway act and had to use an early PFI prototype to get a large network built quickly. The builders were told they would recoup their costs and motorways would eventually become free to use when thos costs were repaid.
Unsurprisingly, the motorway network remains little-used apart from at holiday times, when they are clogged like ours.
Any fool could have looked at the two countries and guessed what would have happened.
The money should have been spent on improving railways – the only way to reduce road congestion.
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like most monopolies–it is a very expensive rip off—dont use it—pick your time to travel—£4.50 is legalised burglary
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The M6 Toll is excellent and saves a good half hour in travelling from South Staffs to Warwickshire and beyond.
It is sad that the greed of the operating companies who have uplifted the fees regularly since it’s inception, regardless of user attitude, has lead inevitably to it’s potential not being realised. Another increase is earmarked for Jan 1st even though usage is decreasing. Unquestionably the greed is self destructive and will lead to it failing as a Toll Motorway and just becoming free to use.
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