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Operators shun new toll plan
Page 7
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OPERATORS HAVE dismissed the government's plans for Britain's second toll motorway linking Birmingham to Manchester.
The new route would extend the existing M6 Toll road by 50 miles with an extra two lanes running north and two south straddling the M6 motorway.
However, operators say that they are unlikely to use the new road after seeing little benefit in the current M6 Toll; a survey revealed just one in every 285 trucks opts for the £11 Mb Toll road instead of the regular M6 (CM 15 January).
Jason Bradley from Manchester firm AK Worthington Group says it definitely won't be using it. "We don't use the current M6 Toll now because we don't believe it is of any benefit to us.
"We wait for the posh people in cars to use the toll and then we get a clearer run on the Mb."
Peter Garner from Manchesterbased Robert Garner (Transport) agrees: "This is just another tax on the haulage industry; our customers won't pay an increased rate for us to use the toll road."
Although it welcomes the announcement, the Freight 'limnsport Association says that tolls must be set at a reasonable level and building must start soon.
However the rival Road Haulage Association takes a different view, believing that toll roads do not benefit the country as a whole.
• Scotland's First Minister attended a meeting this week with Mayor of London Ken Livingstone to discuss "areas of mutual interest" including congestion charging. Jack McConnell favours road charging as a means of cutting jams on Scottish roads.