The M6 Toll Road

[Andy™]

Not sure what the cost is for a truck  & driver  to sit on the M6    doing 5 MPH    but  after  a few times I'd be looking at the £11 fee  I think . 

less hassle for the driver to sit in traffic for an hour than try and get the payment back from their company id expect

 

[NozSpark]

less hassle for the driver to sit in traffic for an hour than try and get the payment back from their company id expect

It would have a massive knock on for a HGV driver on a tacho,,,, fewer driving hours, few miles traveled, missing rest stops, missing arrival times at drop offs (could be sent away)

 

[Andy™]

depends if their paid by the hour or not... most couldt care les how long it takes, they still get paid the same

 

[Doc Hudson]

On a slight tangent, do the Highways Agency, (AKA stand-in Motorway Police), monitor and support any incidents on the M6 Toll? As surely if this is a private enterprise they should have their own staff to provide any incident support? Or is it just Tolls paid go to private company, but upkeep and support are covered by staff employed by the TaxMan?  i.e we pay to keep a Toll road we don't use running?.

Doc H. 

 

[Andy™]

i think we all know the answer to that one Doc

 

[phil d]

The M6 toll road is policed by the cmpg, but because it is pretty quiet it doesn't get a lot of policing, hence it is known as a place to try out your fast car. There was a couple of lads got nicked last year for using it as a drag strip in the early hours, which apparently, if you look on certain motoring forums is pretty common.

Interestingly enough, and here's a little-known fact about that road, apparently, there were thousands of old Mills and Boon books used in it's construction, they were shredded and used in the sub-base or something.

Slightly off topic, but rather interesting was an incident near me a couple of years ago, I won't mention the motorway to protect the parties concerned, lol

Well,a couple of the lads I knew worked on traffic and one had bought a new motorbike, IIRC it was a Hayabusa, and he wanted to see how fast it went, they do over 180mph apparently! So he's talking to one of the other traffic lads and mentions this, so they come up with a plan to test it. There's a certain motorway near me and it's pretty quiet on a weekend, so as the lad with the bike is off shift on the Sunday, his mate suggests that they meet up around 6am, and try it out, he'll be in his police car since he's working and hopefully people will think they're testing an unmarked police bike, if there is anyone around that is.

The day arrives and from the word go it starts to unravel, the lad on shift has been given a high-performance motor, but it's unmarked, they decide to carry on however and do a run between 2 junctions, it's a warm up, speeds are only about 70mph, they go again, this time quicker, the unmarked has it's flashing headlights on and they're running about 140, all good so far, so they run again. On the final run the bike roars off, hits about 170 and the unmarked is behind it doing about 155! Then disaster, they arrive at the next junction and find the road blocked by police cars, all hell breaks loose, worst of all the inspector off traffic has turned out. It transpired that as they were hurtling up and down the motorway an old bloke on an overbridge had spotted them. He'd rung the police demanding to know why there were 2 idiots racing up and down the motorway, a bloke on a bike and some nutter behind him flashing his headlights!

Fortunately, as they were 'in the job' they weren't booked, but I believe they were taken off driving for quite a while. lol

 

[UNG]

Biggest problem with the M6 toll is the price is the same whether you travel from one junction to the next or the full length of it unlike the French autoroutes where you pay for what you use .

Over the years it has been in operation I have always thought it to be a bit of a gamble to use it, I assume they still take the toll when they have to close it because of accidents

 

[Evans Electric]

Can't think of any accidents on there TBH   Ung   .   But its a business, if you turned up at the toll booth they'd have your money , no problem , I'd bet.

 

[kerching]

We went on toll yesterday on the way out

forgot on the way back that it isn't signposted from the M6......flicking nightmare

just regretting

 

[NozSpark]

I'll be going past it next Saturday..... picking my daughter up,,, along with all her stuff......

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Can't think of any accidents on there TBH   Ung   .   But its a business, if you turned up at the toll booth they'd have your money , no problem , I'd bet.

If you have a quick google...

there have been a few..

e.g.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/transport/2017/08/02/wrong-way-car-crash-closes-m6-toll/

Including someone falling off a bridge...

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/m6-toll-traffic-crash-live-14327029

(with respect and thoughts to whatever brought anyone to drop off a motorway bridge.. and any family left behind)

So it is not accident or hold-up free even though you have to pay to use it...

I honestly think they ought to do a genuine survey of how much it could reduce congestion in other areas by operating it free for 12months...

and count the "increased volume of traffic"  AKA reduced volume of traffic on M6...

As no matter how low the fee is, any payment of any type will deter some users...

Consider someone commuting every day, 5days a week, 46 weeks of the year, who could make 2 journeys each day..

even at £1 per journey will cost £460 per year..

at £5 per journey that ramps up to £2300...   

{now that is a big saving if you can cope with the slower journey}

Guinness