Toll Motorway Attracts 35,000 Vehicles A Day By Owen Fairclough,...

Toll Motorway Attracts 35,000 Vehicles A Day

By Owen Fairclough, PA News


The boss of Britain’s first toll motorway said today he was pleased with traffic numbers in its first full week of operation.

The M6 Toll, which offers motorists a pay-as-you-go alternative to the heavily-congested M6 around Birmingham, attracted an average of 34,612 vehicles a day between December 14 and 20.

This figure equates to nearly 20% of the 180,000 vehicles which normally use the M6 on average each day in the West Midlands.

Tom Fanning, managing director of Midland Expressway Ltd (MEL), which runs the M6 Toll, said: “We are pleased with the traffic levels in our first week of opening.

“I have said all along that we expect demand to grow steadily over time, and it’s still very early days, but we have already seen a lot of local and through traffic on the road and the uptake so far is encouraging.”

The figures were compiled by Macquarie Infrastructure Group, the Australian-based company which owns 75% of MEL.

The figures did not detail what proportion of vehicles were cars, lorries or vans, or the individual daily usage. Cars are charged £2, vans £5 and HGVs £10.

MEL began a phased opening of the road, which cost £900 million to build and runs between Warwickshire and Staffordshire, to local users on December 9 before opening fully on December 14.