Could This Be The End Of Toll Roads?

Monday, 20. September 2010

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The last Labour Government made a big thing about toll roads, this was going to be the way forward if we were to make the roads less congested but according to research by the Campaign for Better Transport the showpiece M6 toll road has failed to meet its targets. The report claims that the operator, Midlands Expressway is losing millions of pounds every year. The cost of £5 drops to £4.50 at weekends and £3.50 at night but even with the incentives it doesn’t attract enough traffic leaving the old M6 clogged at various times of the day. Even though the road wasn’t reaching its objectives the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, said this year that the road was a model of how projects could be funded which isn’t borne out by the report. The CBT believes that the Highways Agency is to spend half a million pounds on congestion relief on the main M6, exactly what the M6 toll road was created to do. I have used it myself and think it’s great value, paying £5 to zoom along the 27 mile toll road without a sniff of congestion, or even HGV’s as the truckers refuse to pay the £10 charge for a truck on the M6 toll road. The report concluded that the road was ‘a colossal and expensive failure.’ Do you think this spells the end for toll roads? By Graham Hill