M6 toll is half empty traffic report reveals

The M6 toll is operating at half its design capacity and is an "inefficient use of the road network", a new report says.

Transport chiefs in the West Midlands have commissioned a consultation asking how to ease freight congestion.

But they say that the original M6 is taking twice the vehicles for which it was designed, while the M6 Toll is charging too much and putting lorry drivers off. Centro, the West Midlands transport authority, also wants to see railway lines brought into use to cut the number of lorries.

The M6 Toll opened in 2003 and was projected to carry 70,000 vehicles per day. Latest figures show that 39,000 vehicles a day are using it, down from a peak of 48,300 in 2006.

Lorries pay £10.07 every time they use the road, which covers a 27-mile stretch between Cannock and Coleshill. Lorries make up one per cent of M6 Toll traffic compared with more than 10 per cent on the M6.

Read the full story in the Express & Star.