Will UK Motorists Pay Back The Deficit Single Handed

Sunday, 6. June 2010

Guess which is the most expensive toll road in the world? I’ll give you a little clue – it’s the M6. Correct, the M6 relief road which charges drivers £5 each way is indeed the most expensive in the world. Now I must say I have been on it and for the cost of a fiver it’s a dream to drive on especially as you just know that cars are moving at about 2 miles per hour on the main M6 whilst I’m cruising at, um, 70mph. The problem is of course that I don’t have to make that trip around Birmingham any more than twice in a lifetime so I don’t mind the fiver each way but the new transport minister has been getting all excited about the prospect of opening stretches of motorway all over the UK and charging for the privilege. The problem with the M6 is that it is owned by Australians and they only understand Fosters, they don’t understand economics. You see when the road was opened at a cost of £900 million the charge was £2 each way. They wanted to recoup their money quicker so they upped the price which caused fewer people to use the road, so they increased it again and so on. In fact they have increased the price 6 times in 7 years so when I was on the road there was only me. So the thought that the country will be covered by empty toll roads whilst the non toll roads break under the strain worries me. Like so much else that has been happening in this country we are going to end up with another 2 tier system that benefits the well off! Oops started to get a bit political there! By Graham Hill