M6 TOLL

The 'M6 Toll' (previously called the 'Birmingham North Relief Road', or 'BNRR') is the United Kingdom's first toll-paying motorway, other than the Severn Bridges on the M4 and M48 motorways. The M6 Toll is part of the (unsigned in the UK) E-road E5. [1]
Designed to alleviate the increasing congestion on the M6 through Birmingham and the Black Country, in England, it connects M6 Junction 4 at the NEC to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton with 27 miles (43 km) of three-lane motorway. This busiest section of the M6 was previously carrying up to 180,000 vehicles per day when it was designed to carry only 72,000. The new M6 Toll road is touted by its operator as saving up to 45 minutes of journey time over the old road before the opening of the toll road.

Contents

Background

Features

Criticisms

Tolls

Toll collection

Tags

Junctions

Trivia

Statutory Instruments

See also

External links

Background

In 1992, a private sector company, Midland Expressway Ltd (MEL), won a 53-year concession to build and operate the road as an early form of public-private partnership scheme, with the company recouping its costs by setting and collecting tolls. The concession period began when construction began, the idea being that it would cover three years of construction and 50 years of operation, before the road was returned to the Government. MEL contracted out the construction of the road to a consortium of major contractors Carillion, Alfred McAlpine, Balfour Beatty and AMEC (together known as CAMBBA). Construction work began in mid-2002. The road was partially opened on December 9 2003 for traffic entering from local junctions, then fully opened on December 14 2003.
MEL reported an operating profit of around £16 million in 2005. Total revenue was £45 million, with staff and other operating costs amounting to £11.4 million and depreciation of £17.4 million. Taking into account net interest costs of around £43 million, that leaves an overall loss of £26.5 million in 2005 - their first full financial year[2].
As of June 2005, MEL is 100% owned by Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia who operate many tolled roads in Australia and across the world including Highway 407 in Canada. Long term debt was £819 million as of 30 June 2005. Disappointing traffic figures for Summer 2005 led to a price rise in June and for MIG Chief Executive Steve Allen to comment in the Australian newspaper ''The Age'': "What we need is to slow down the M6". [3]
Business leaders in Staffordshire, now effectively closer to London, welcomed the opening of the road, saying that it would make it easier to do business there [4].
There was a proposal to build a new toll motorway, called the M6 Expressway, from the end of the M6 Toll up to as far as Knutsford, where much of the traffic leaves the M6 for Manchester. However, it was announced on 20 July 2006 that this proposal had been abandoned due to excessive costs and anticipated construction problems. [5]

Features

The M6 Toll has only a few junctions, some with limited access, to discourage local traffic from using the new bypass. Unlike modern toll roads in continental Europe, the M6 Toll uses toll plazas.
The Motorway's only service station is situated at Norton Canes, between junctions T6 and T7.
On 10 January 2004, just five weeks after opening, a short section of the road near Sutton Coldfield was reduced to one lane to allow for repairs to an uneven surface. On 19 January work also began on a separate stretch near Langley Mill, to deal with heavy rainwater failing to drain away.

Criticisms

Environmental campaigners opposed the road, from its inception. While the road was being built some advocates of direct action dug tunnels in the path of the road in order to frustrate and delay the work. Friends of the Earth claimed that the road would not relieve much traffic from the West Midlands conurbation as most users using the M6 in that area began or ended their journeys within the conurbation and so the M6 Toll would offer no advantage to them. Their campaign co-ordinator for the West Midlands, Chris Crean, said that although the £900m cost of the road had been borne by private companies, the money should have been spent on public transport [6].
Although driver feedback of the road itself has been good, some aspects have been unpopular. Firstly, the junctions between the M6 and M6 Toll have faced criticism. For southbound drivers, continuing along the M6 will result in using the toll road, whereas those wanting to continue using the M6 must turn off at junction 11a, as if they were leaving the M6 for a new motorway. This has resulted in accusations that the junction is designed to "trick" unwitting drivers into using the toll road.
For northbound drivers on the M6, the junction with the M6 Toll has also been branded confusing. This is largely due to the fact that this end of the M6 Toll actually joins the M42 just north of the M6/M42 junction. Again, drivers have to opt-out in order to use the M6, and much of the junction has been labelled confusing by motorists.
There have been further accusations that junctions on the road are under-standard, as they all involve sharp corners and require drivers to slow down drastically before leaving the motorway.
Similarly, the signage for the M6 Toll has been labelled confusing, on the basis that drivers can easily misread signs, particularly where both the M6 and M6 Toll are listed on the same sign. For this reason, some motorists have suggested that the road should have taken a different name (such as "T6" or "M6T), and/or that signs for toll motorways should have a different background colour to standard motorways, in order to allow motorists to distinguish between the two with only a brief glance at a sign.

Tolls

As of the road's opening, tolls were £1 for motorcycles, £2 for cars, £5 for vans and £10 for lorries, each to rise by £1 after the first ten million vehicles. This figure was achieved in August 2004. A lower price is available during off-peak hours (23:00 - 06:00) as well as at the Langley Mill tolls for northbound exit and southbound entry to the motorway.
On 23 July, 2004, the toll for HGVs was reduced from £10 to £6 due to the low numbers of lorries using the new motorway. Prices rose on 14 June, 2005 but the planned rise for the summer of 2006 was delayed [7]. Australian financial analysts attributed this to lower than expected traffic numbers.
The 1992 concession entitles MEL to change the toll rates at six-monthly intervals and there is no cap on the rates charged (see Hansard[8]). As of 2007, they are ^[1]:

Guide	Day	Night
	(06:00 - 23:00)	(23:00 - 06:00)
Class 1 (e.g. motorbike)	£2.50	£1.50
Class 2 (e.g. car)	£4.00	£3.00
Class 3 (e.g. car & trailer)	£7.00	£6.00
Class 4 (e.g. van/coach)	£8.00	£7.00
Class 5 (e.g. HGV)	£8.00	£7.00
with a 5% reduction for using a tag

Exit/entry at some of the intermediate junctions away from the main toll booths entails a reduced toll, typically £1 less than the full fee.

Toll collection

Tolls can be paid by one of four means: automated coin payments, payment at a staffed toll booth, automated credit/debit card payments or in advance via an M6 Toll tag. Not all methods are available at all toll gates; each of the toll gates features an electronic sign showing the payment methods available at the time.
Vehicles are classified electronically at the toll booths according to their number of wheels, number of axles and height at first axle. Thus vehicles with trailers are charged extra and some large models of 4x4 are classified as vans.
Failure to pay the toll for using the motorway is an offence; anyone attempting to do so will be issued with an unpaid toll notice and required to send payment.

Tags

An 'M6 Toll tag' is an electronic toll collection device attached to a vehicle's windscreen, which records the vehicle's passage through toll plazas on the M6 Toll.
Each tag can only be used with the registered number plate and has a unique account. All accounts on the M6 Toll are pre-paid, and must contain a positive balance, sufficient to cover the cost of the vehicle's toll, in order for the vehicle to be allowed through the toll gate. If the balance is sufficient, the tag will beep once and the barrier at the toll gate will automatically raise. If the balance is low (less than three journeys remaining), the tag will beep twice. If the balance of the account cannot cover the cost of the toll, the barrier will remain closed and an alternative method of payment must be used.
Balances can be topped up automatically once a month using Direct Debit or credit card, or by cheque.
The tags contain a microchip which uses Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Physically, the tag resembles a DART-Tag, as used to pay the tolls on the Dartford Crossing. However, the two systems do not interoperate.

Junctions

The towns, cities and roads listed are those given on road signs on the motorway as the junction is approached.

'M6 Toll Motorway'
No.	Coordinates	Northbound	Tolls	Southbound	Tolls
Southern end		Merge between M42 northbound and M6 J3a northbound	None	Split between southbound M42 and a merge with M6 J3a southbound	None
M6 Merge		Merge from M6 J4a southbound	None		None
T1		Split for M42 northbound, entry from A4097 (M42 J9, A446)	None	Merge with M42 southbound	None
T2		No entry or exit	None	A446 (M42 north) - Coleshill	None
T3 Langley Mill		A38 - Sutton Coldfield (exit and entry)	Exit	A38 - Birmingham (N)/Sutton Coldfield (exit and entry)	Entry
				''Weeford Park toll''
T4 Weeford Junction		A38/A5 - Burton/Lichfield/Tamworth (exit and entry)	Exit	A5 (M42 north) - Tamworth (exit and entry)	Exit
T5 Wall		Entry from A5127 (A5/A5148)	None	A5148 (A38) - Lichfield/Burton	Exit
T6 Brownhills		A5195 - Brownhills/Burntwood (exit and entry)	Exit	A5195 - Brownhills/Burntwood (exit and entry)	Exit
		''Norton Canes services''
		''Great Wyrley toll''
T7 Churchbridge		A34/A460 - Walsall/Cannock/Rugeley	None	Entry	None
T8 Wedges Mills		A460 (M6 south) - Wolverhampton	None	Entry	None
Northern end		Merge with M6 J11a northbound	None	Begins from M6 J11a southbound	None

Trivia

★ The construction of the motorway threatened the restoration of the Lichfield Canal, which cut across the motorway's route. Funds were raised to build an aqueduct to carry the canal over the motorway. The aqueduct has been finished but the canal has yet to reach it, giving it an odd appearance. This has had a side-effect – the Government has promised that never again will a new road be built in the path of a waterway restoration scheme, unless an aqueduct or tunnel is provided.

★ Several high-performance car dealerships in the M6 Toll area quietly recommend the M6 Toll as a place to demonstrate the capabilities of their cars. However, the road is subject to the same motorway regulations as other motorways in the UK and is policed in the same way.

Statutory Instruments

Each motorway in England requires that a legal document called a Statutory Instrument be published, detailing the route of the road, before it can be built. The dates given on these Statutory Instruments relate to when the document was published, and not when the road was built. Provided below is a list (possibly incomplete) of the Statutory Instruments relating to the M6 Toll.

★ Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 121: The Birmingham Northern Relief Road and Connecting Roads Scheme 1998 S.I. 1998/121

★ Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 124: The Birmingham Northern Relief Road Toll Order 1998 S.I. 1998/124

★ Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 2186: The M6 Toll (Collection of Tolls) Regulations 2003 S.I. 2003/2186

★ Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 2187: The M6 Toll Wide Load Routes (Speed Limit) Regulations 2003 S.I. 2003/2187

★ Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 2188: The M6 Toll (Speed Limit) Regulations 2003 S.I. 2003/2188

See also

★ List of motorways in the United Kingdom

★ Shunpiking, the avoidance or boycott of toll roads

External links

★ Official site

★ M6 Toll Ltd - tag details

★ Macquarie Infrastructure Group

★ CBRD Motorway Database - M6 Toll

★ Traffic figures on National Alliance Against Tolls site

★ BBC News report on the road's early opening

★ Some detail and photographs of the route and opening day

★ The Motorway Archive - M6 Toll

★ NoTolls

★ Pathetic Motorways: A446(M)