M6 Toll

[Mark W]

Can't believe what I heard today...they are outing the price of the toll up by 20p as of Jan despite 12% less usage than this time last year, congestion worse than ever on M6, reduction in VAT and hard times for everyone.

What planet these people on? Taking the Mick IMHO

[Gord]

Can't believe what I heard today...they are outing the price of the toll up by 20p as of Jan despite 12% less usage than this time last year, congestion worse than ever on M6, reduction in VAT and hard times for everyone.

What planet these people on? Taking the Mick IMHO

Yer the price keeps going up, but only 20p, most of the time its been 50p :o

[sparkystav]

how much is it now?

I didnt like paying £4.50 the last time i was on it but it wasnt too bad.

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Apparently they need 100,000 vehicles a day to make it pay, they are getting less than 50,000.

[MacRS200]

Maybe they should just close it to stop the losses, reschedule the loans, ask the Govt for a "bail out" like Metronet have had and Tubelines are asking for now.

No problem it's their road and everyone can go back on the M6 for a while, or pay the toll, get there quicker and save the toll from fuel costs.

[dave1]

Last time I used it I think it was £1, that was about 6 am though. I just use the M6 which I usually find OK.

[Mark W]

Maybe they should just close it to stop the losses, reschedule the loans, ask the Govt for a "bail out" like Metronet have had and Tubelines are asking for now.

No problem it's their road and everyone can go back on the M6 for a while, or pay the toll, get there quicker and save the toll from fuel costs.

IMHO the main reason people are not using is due to 2 reasons;

1) the price - it's a lot of money over the course of a week especially combined with the high fuel costs we have been experiencing. To use it both ways every day of the week is now going to cost £47 a week or £190/ month

I use it everyday to go to work as saves me about 15 mins on my journey but can't justify using on the way back.

It's also further compared to the alternative route so fuel saving is more or less cancelled out but I pay it as I hate queuing.

2) the route - I have absolutely no proof but I get the impression that most the traffic on the m6 is not travelling the full distance the toll covers ( Junc 11 to 4a). If I am correct then the toll isn't really an alternative.

Like any business they should have completed their business case on a basis of being able to charge customers a rate which would attract the right number of users to cover their costs and make a profit. If the figures don't stack up then it's not viable. Most people I knowdont use the toll because of the cost and find alternatives. Maybe it's a false economy on their part but until the m6 toll convinces people differently , putting up the price will only put even more people off using it IMHO.

They could possibly attract more traffic if they changed the rate time windows too- eg- at 9:00am why on earth would people pay to use the toll to save a couple of minutes compared to the m6? And if you see traffic on the toll at that time of the day you see that most people won't. Similar issue at weekends.

[Gord]

Never used it at peak times, when we went to the Prodrive tour the other Monday, we used the M6, coz it would have cost £9 extra getting there and back. So cost it was for us :D