More motorists using the M6 Toll

The number of vehicles using the 27-mile stretch of motorway between Cannock and Coleshill rose from 37,031 a day in October to December 2012 to 41,889.

Bosses Midland Expressway today said the roadworks on the M6 throughout Staffordshire and the Black Country which have led to long tailbacks have contributed to the 13.1 per cent rise over the last three months.

They also say more hauliers are using the toll road – and that the improving economic climate has also helped.

Midweek usage was up 11.7 per cent from 41,348 a day to 46,201 and weekend and bank holiday usage up 17.9 per cent from 27,163 to 32,033. Charges are currently £5.50 during the week and £4.80 at weekends for cars and £11 and £9.60 for HGVs.

The road – the UK's first toll-paying motorway – cost £900 million to build and recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, having opened to traffic in December 2003.

Cannock Chase Council leader Councillor George Adamson recently called for it to be nationalised to improve local transport links and the chief executive of transport authority Centro, Geoff Inskip, has also called for it to be taken into public ownership because it has failed to attract enough vehicle away from using the congested M6.

Last July Midland Expressway, which has the concession to run the M6 Toll until 2054, gave members of the Road Haulage Association free use of the road as an experiment aimed at boosting the number of lorries using it.

The experiment resulted in an extra 1,000 HGV journeys a day on the road which offers a shortcut from Junction 3A of the M6 to Junction 11A.

The M6 Toll was designed to carry 72,000 vehicles a day but has never reached that level. The busiest day was in May 2004 when 66,295 were recorded. In 2012 average daily use of the road had fallen as low as 29,313.

Midland Expressway chief executive Tom Fanning, who could not be contacted for comment , has previously said that the road has never cost the taxpayer a penny.

He has said that the question of nationalisation is 'one for government' and that without private investment, the M6 Toll would not otherwise exist and its customers would instead be adding to the existing M6 congestion. on the M6.