Free M6 Toll plan to help beat motorway congestion
The M6 Toll could be opened up for free when the main M6 motorway is congested, if the Government agrees to release the operators from an obligation to part-finance a link road, it has emerged.
Midland Expressway is attempting to renegotiate its debt burden.
The company has debts of £1.03 billion, which mature in 2015, and as part of its 50-year concession agreement would have to pay more than £100 million towards the costs of the M54 link road if the Government decides to proceed with it.
And it today emerged that the firm has asked for the funding requirement to be scrapped in return for allowing cars and lorries stuck in tailbacks on the M6 to re-route to the 27-mile toll motorway for free.
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Traffic numbers on the M6 Toll, which runs from Cannock to Coleshill, have fallen from a peak of 55,000 a day in 2006. For the last reported quarter from January to March, the daily average was 34,310.
Midland Expressway – a subsidiary of Australian company Macquarie Alas Roads – is allowing members of the Road Haulage Association, who were not previously M6 Toll account holders, to use the road for free throughout this month.
Councillor Adamson said that if the Government agreed to drop the commitment it would be a good deal for Midland Expressway. "We would need to discuss the fine detail," he added.
Councillor Adamson said that the M6 at Cannock suffered from congestion regularly and it would have to be made clear whether free use would apply only if there were accidents.
Councillor Janos Toth, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Cannock Chase, dubbed the proposal a gimmick. He said: "The M6 Toll road has always been far too expensive for average working people of Cannock Chase and the West Midlands. This strikes me as nothing but a gimmick."
