The M6 toll road should be nationalised because it has failed to relieve congestion, the head of the region's local transport authority has said.
Britain's only privately-run toll road, which runs through the West Midlands, has not relieved congestion on the motorway around Birmingham, he said.
Geoff Inskip, chief executive of Centro, the West Midlands transport authority, called on the Government to take the M6 toll road out of private hands to ease congestion around Britain’s second largest city, after evidence emerged that traffic on the toll road has fallen 40 per cent since its peak of 55,000 vehicles a day in 2006.
Under used: the M6 Toll Road should be nationalised rather than expanding the original M6 to cope with the projected 25 per cent increase in traffic over the next 15 years, transport chief Geoff Inskip said
When it was completed ten years ago it was hoped the M6 Toll would relieve traffic congestion around Birmingham with around 74,000 vehicles predicted to use the road each day.
Currently, around little more than half – 34,360 - the number of vehicles expected to use the road each day actually do.
Congestion around Birmingham has become so bad that the Highways Agency has already begun work on converting the hard shoulder of the original M6 motorway into a new lane in order to deal with the additional traffic.
More... How to cut your petrol costs Young female drivers hit hard by EU rule changes as insurance costs soar by a FIFTH in just 12 months Can using a comparison website to get cheap insurance quotes put a dent in your credit file?But Mr Inskip warned the additional capacity would not be enough to deal with the Department for Transport's own projections for a 25 per cent increase in traffic over the next 10 to 15 years.
‘To deal with that we would need to build a new motorway but why do that when we have a parallel motorway that is being underutilised?,' he told the Financial Times. 'To get traffic up on the M6 Toll one of the options would be to bring it back to public ownership.’
Falling numbers: Traffic on the toll road has dropped by 45 per cent since 2006, it has been reportedMidland Expressway – a subsidiary of Macquarie Bank – which owns and operates the M6 toll road has blamed the economic downturn for the fall in traffic on the road.
But critics have also pointed to excessive charges to use the road. It costs £5.50 for a car to use the 27-mile stretch of motorway but for HGVs its costs double this amount.
Cars: Deal Finders Car insurance Car warranties Car loans Credit checkThere have been eight price rises in the ten years since the toll road opened in December 2003 when a car could travel on the road for just £2. HGVs were charged £10 for use of the road before the charge fell to £6 the next year only for prices to begin rising again in 2005.
The call to nationalise the road comes amid a debate on how to finance new road building in Britain, with tolls being one option given consideration by the Coalition, although the Government has ruled this option out for existing roads. Plans to privatise the motorway network have also been shelved.
The M6 toll road's owner, Macquarie faces the additional problem of a £1billion debt burden associated with the road following a refinancing in 2006. The bank is currently in talks with its creditors to restructure the debt.
In July, Midland Expressway is making the toll road free to use for all haulage vehicles in an effort to attract more hauliers to use it. The toll is due to remain in private hands until 2054 and the Department for Transport said the Government had no plans to nationalise the road before this.
