M6 Toll road 'an expensive failure'

The M6 Toll road is an expensive failure which has failed to end gridlock on one of Britain's busiest stretches of motorway, a report revealed today.

Traffic jams around Birmingham are at least as bad as they were before the M6 Toll opened in 2003, according to the Campaign for Better Transport, which claims that fewer motorists each year are using the 27-mile stretch of road.

When the toll road opened, drivers were charged £2 to use it. A series of above-inflation increases has seen the bill rise to £5.

This has coincided with the number of motorists willing to pay falling dramatically, the study says.

In the spring of 2006 it attracted just under 60,000 drivers a day. By the start of this year, the figure had fallen to just over 40,000, marginally more than when the toll opened.

Those who are willing to pay can enjoy a far quicker journey during the rush hour, especially when travelling southbound when using the relief road takes around 40 minutes - about half the time needed on the M6.

But the report says at other times the time saving is little more than five minutes, meaning the toll is poor value for the motorist.

The campaign group says the Highways Agency itself has admitted that by 2008 traffic levels on the stretch of the M6 running parallel to the toll road were as they were before it opened.

"The M6 Toll has provided so little congestion relief that the Highways Agency has been forced to allocate hundreds of millions of pounds for additional capacity," the report adds.

Proposals include allowing cars to use the hard shoulder during the rush hour. But this, according to the campaign, would cost between £300 to £500 million.

"Toll roads are not, and will never be, a solution to congestion on Britain's roads, no matter how attractive they may appear to cash-strapped politicians desperate to deliver otherwise unaffordable road schemes," the report says.

However an AA spokesman defended the toll road, saying: "Drivers who use it are happy to pay the premium, because it avoids the horribly lorry-congested M6."

By Business Editor Amy Bould