Road Charging Scheme: Europe - UK, M6 Motorway Toll Road (M6T)

Europe - UK, M6 (Adobe Acrobat version - 347kb)

Type of Scheme

• Motorway toll road with variable charging.

Date of Introduction

• December 2003.

Background

• Prior to the opening of the new toll road, the M6 through the West Midlands carried up to 160,000 vehicles a day - it was built to accommodate just 72,000.
• The average speed between junctions 4 and 11 of the M6 (the section bypassed by the M6 Toll) was approximately 17mph, producing rush-hour journey times of up to 79 minutes.
• A new M6 Toll Road was built to relieve one of the most congested sections of motorway in Europe.
• M6T is a privately financed and operated three-lane motorway that bypasses the busiest section of the M6 through Birmingham, providing a link from the M6 north of Birmingham to the M42 east of Birmingham.
• M6T is 27 miles in length and has eight entry and/or exit junctions, and six toll stations.
• It is the first tolled motorway scheme in the UK.

Aims

• To ease chronic traffic problems in the West Midlands.
• To bypass the most congested parts of the M6, which are near Birmingham.

How it Works

Charges:

• The variable toll system places vehicles into different categories and charges separate rates for each category depending on the size of the vehicle.
• Rates alter according to the time of day, with day and night tariffs.
• Current prices at main Toll Plazas vehicle chart:
  
  

  	Day (06:00 - 23:00)	Night (23:00 - 06:00)
  Class 1 (e.g. motorbike)	£2.50	£1.50
  Class 2 (e.g. car)	£3.50	£2.50
  Class 3 (e.g. car & trailer)	£7.00	£6.00
  Class 4 (e.g. van/coach)	£7.00	£6.00
  Class 5 (e.g. HGV)	£7.00	£6.00

Technology:

• As drivers approach a toll station on the M6T stretch of motorway they are filtered into specific toll lanes.
• These toll lanes contain clear signs above the toll booths as to which form of payment will be accepted.
• Payment can be made at a manned booth by credit card, debit card and cash; or at an automatic booth, using credit or debit cards, or coins only (no change given).
• Drivers can also pay in advance of their journey using the electronic toll collection (ETC) system whereby an electronic tag is attached to drivers' windscreen, which includes a microchip that is automatically read at each toll booth.
• This entitles drivers to go through the ETC lane which does not involve any stopping.
• To use ETC, the driver sets up an account with the private company operating M6T.
• This system works in the same way as a top-up mobile phone - the driver 'tops-up' their account with money.

Enforcement:

• Self-enforcing. Drivers cannot use the toll road until they pay.

Revenue

• The Concession agreement provides for the private company, Midland Expressway Limited, to carry out the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the M6T at their own cost and risk, without recourse to government funds or Government Guarantees.
• No figures released on annual amount raised.

Benefits/Results

• Traffic flows have improved as have journey time savings and reliability.
• A Trafficmaster survey estimates that using the new M6 Toll can reduce journey times by up to 45 minutes.
• However, result on other roads in the conurbation is more mixed with overall traffic level in the M6 corridor having increased.
• Main beneficiaries of the M6T, at the current prices, are car travellers.
• Diversion of car traffic to the M6T resulted in freight hauliers benefiting because of lower levels of congestion.
• Introduction of new tolled road facilities has caused substantial changes to route choice and departure time choice. These vary by day of week and season of year.

Next Steps

• Government agrees that before any decisions about whether to proceed with more tolled motorways are taken there is a need to provide more detailed information and to assess full range of potential social, economic and environmental impacts, and the scope for minimising any adverse impacts, as well as maximising the benefits.
• A multi-agency steering group looking at the impact of the M6 Toll have commissioned a '12 months after study'. This will cover traffic flows and journey times on the M6 Toll as well as safety issues for the M6 Toll and the wider area network.
• The group has also commissioned a report looking at the environmental impacts of the new motorway. Land use and regeneration have longer term effects and thus will be the subject of a longer term study.

Website

M6 Motorway Toll Road:
www.m6toll.co.uk.

References

www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/travel/tollroad/about.shtml.

www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/archive/2004/gmc/.

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