M6 Toll

The M6 Toll, also called the Ernest North Relief Road / BNRR, connects M6 Junction 4 at the NEC to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton with 27 mi of six-lane motorway. The weekday cash cost is £5.50 for a car and £11.00 for an HGV. The M6 Toll is part of the (unsigned in the UK) E-road E05 and is subject to the same regulations and policing as other motorways in the UK.

Planning and construction
Proposals for a new publicly funded motorway were circulated in 1980. It was originally called the Birmingham North Relief Road (BNRR) and designed to alleviate the increasing congestion on the M6 through Birmingham and the Black Country, in England, which is the busiest section of the M6 was previously carrying up to 180,000 vehicles per day when it was designed to carry only 72,000.

Five alternative routes were put for consultation in 1980 and a preferred route was published in 1986. In 1989 there was a public inquiry relating to a publicly funded motorway.

In 1989 it was announced that it would be built privately and a competition took place which was won by Midland Expressway Ltd in 1991. The contract was for a 53-year concession to build and operate the road as an early form of public private partnership with the operator paying for the construction and recouping its costs by setting and collecting tolls, allowing for a 3-year construction period followed by 50 years of operation. At the end of this period the infrastructure would be returned to the Government. Toll rates are set at the discretion of the operator at six-monthly intervals and there is no cap on the rates charged.

There was a second public inquiry from relating to the new scheme in 1994–1995 and a go-ahead in 1997. A legal challenge was made by the 'Alliance against BNRR' which was cleared in 1998.

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).

Site clearance started in 2000 and the road opened in December 2003. When creating the surface of the road some 2.5 million Mills & Boon novels were pulped and mixed into the tarmac to help the surface absorbency.

Construction work began in the summer of 2002.

In August 2003 freight operators indicated that they planned to keep their vehicles on the heavily congested M6 through Birmingham rather than send them on the new motorway due to high fees. The AA Motoring Trust said it welcomed the decision to make lorries pay a premium rate explaining that “Car drivers find lorries intimidating and they frequently hold up traffic on motorways when overtaking each other.

The road was partially opened on 9 December 2003 for traffic entering from local junctions, then fully opened on 14 December 2003.

First year of operation
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.

On 23 July 2004 prices for lorries were reduced from £10 to £6 to encourage them to use the route "for a trial period".

In August 2004 a lower price was available during off-peak hours (23:00 – 06:00) and for the Langley Mill for a northbound exit or a southbound entry.

Traffic levels
In December 2004, one year after opening, Friends of the Earth issued a press release expressing concern that faced with lower than expected traffic numbers, Midland Expressway were trying to attract new traffic-generating developments to greenbelt and greenfield sites in the M6 Toll Corridor. and in April 2005 the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors reported that there was strong interest in the commercial property market place around the M6 Toll "zone of influence".

In May 2005 the Macquarie Infrastructure Group reported that traffic figures were "disappointing". In August 2005 the Highways Agency confirmed in its own 'one year' study showing that usage had settled at around 50,000 vehicle per day (lower than the predicted 74,000) but that traffic volumes on the M6 had reduced slightly.

From 2008, traffic levels started to fall. Traffic in the first quarter of 2009 was 10% less than the year before, 1Q2008 was itself 10% less than 1Q2007. At 39,000 vehicles-per-day (Monday-Friday figures) traffic is about half the 74,000 predicted.

Historical toll rates
Day time cash prices for various vehicle classes since opening:

There is a 5% discount for using a tag. Leasing of one tag currently costs £1.00/month. In addition, a monthly administrative fee of £2.00 is charged if the user wishes to receive a postal statement.

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.

M6 Expressway
There was a proposal to build a new toll motorway, called the M6 Expressway running 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.

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. If it is not paid within two days a £10 administration charge is added, plus further costs will be added if the toll is still unpaid after 14 days.

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 (fewer 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.

Midland Expressway Ltd
The contract to build and operate the M6 Toll was won by Midland Expressway Ltd (MEL) in 1991. In 2005 MEL reported an operating profit of around £16 million. 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.

As of June 2005, MEL was 100% owned by Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG) of Australia, which operated several tolled roads in Australia and North America. Long term debt was £819 million as of 30 June 2005. Disappointing traffic figures for 2005 led to a price rise in June, and MIG Chief Executive Steve Allen commented in the Australian newspaper The Age, "What we need is to slow down the M6".

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.

In June 2006 the decision to not increase tolls was put down to disappointing traffic levels and led to a reduction in value for the owner.

In 2010 MIG was split into two, and the M6 Toll is now managed by Macquarie Atlas Roads.

Design
The M6 Toll lacks a proper link with the M54, which joins the M6 only 1.5 miles/2.5 km south of the northern end of the M6 Toll. Plans are afoot to link them eventually  but for the time being traffic between the two has to use either the slow and often congested A460 to M54 J1, or go from M54 J2 via the A449 and A5 to M6 J12 – an extra 4 miles/7 km. It is unclear why access to/from the M54, which provides a link to the West Midlands from not only Shropshire but much of Wales as well, was not considered a priority when the toll road was being built; indeed, the M6 Toll did not appear on the M54's junction signs (at J2) until early 2009, more than 5 years after the road was opened.

The M6 Toll provides no relief for traffic heading to the North West from the M5 (or vice-versa), for which the "old" M6 is the only option. Drivers of this route must be especially careful to avoid the "default" M6 Toll lanes, as the toll road will not only cost them the toll but will also take them severely off course.

Misleading signage
Considerable disquiet was expressed soon after the opening of the M6 Toll at signage which directed drivers making local journeys onto the toll road replaced older signs. As well as incurring toll charges, the new routes were longer than the original routes leading to accusations that this was just a ploy to increase traffic on the M6 Toll. Similar accusations have been made about traffic signs on the M6 that announce "M6 TOLL CLEAR", even when the M6 is also clear, that are under the control of Midland Expressway Ltd. These issues are mentioned on the M6 Toll FAQ pages, with explanations which emphasise that all drivers using the road are still liable to pay the toll.

Protest during planning and construction
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 £900 million cost of the road had been borne by private companies, the money should have been spent on public transport.

Features
The M6 Toll has few junctions, and some have limited access to discourage local traffic. Like modern toll roads in continental Europe, the M6 Toll still uses toll plazas.

The construction of the motorway threatened the restoration of the Lichfield Canal, which cut across the motorway's route. The Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust campaigned and raised funds 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.

The motorway's only service station is situated at Norton Canes, between junctions T6 and T7.

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

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