Express & Star

Taxpayer will pick up HS2 M6 Toll road bill

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The taxpayer will have to pick up the bill for thousands of journeys on the M6 Toll made by HS2 construction lorries, the Express & Star has learned.

moreBosses behind the high-speed rail scheme have chosen the 27-mile motorway as a major access route for builders if the £50 billion project gets the go-ahead – and today confirmed they will have to pay the toll fee.

The route would be used by lorries heading to the construction site of a 5.5-mile section of the line at Drayton Bassett, Hints, and Weeford, south of Lichfield.

HS2 Ltd has estimated that there will be an extra 1,060 cars or light goods vehicles and 3,560 heavy goods vehicles in the area every day for three years, having a 'major adverse effect' on the roads. It currently costs £11 a journey for heavy goods vehicles to use the M6 Toll Monday to Friday but there is a 15p discount for regular users.

But extra wide or heavy load vehicles up to 150 tons can pay as much as £220 for a journey, with the largest of vehicles having to call the toll's customer services team in advance.

HS2 Ltd spokeswoman Katherine Button said: "Any vehicles using the M6 Toll will keep traffic off local roads. That is why it has been identified as a construction route for HS2 in the environmental statement. HS2 Ltd will comply with all traffic regulations, including any toll fees."

But bosses at Midland Expressway, which runs the M6 Toll, said there had been no discussions with HS2 Ltd.

Tom Fanning, chief executive of Midland Expressway, said: "There have been no discussions whatsoever with the HS2 Ltd as to use of the M6toll and Any projection of usage is pure speculation."

Joe Rukin, campaign manager for Stop HS2, said: "It is unbelievable that with a project of this size at this stage HS2 cannot tell us how often they will have to use the toll road or how much it will cost them. We have said from the beginning that there is a blank cheque for HS2 and this is confirmation of that."

"The M6 Toll must be rubbing its hands together as they could be raking it in over years for this project at the taxpayers' expense."

It comes after the Express & Star revealed there would be more than 4,000 extra journeys made by construction vehicles along the nearby seven-mile Whittington to Handsacre stretch which would take rail passengers just 110 seconds to travel.