Archived press release

M6 Toll Road Opens

9 December 2003

Friends of the Earth today told Alistair Darling to address the causes of congestion and stop dealing simply with the symptoms, as he opened the controversial M6 Toll road in the West Midlands. The environment group said the policy of building roads to solve our congestion problems resulted in more and more traffic and more and more congestion.

The M6 Toll is the UK's first and only toll boothed motorway. Midland Expressway Limited (MEL) [1] is charging motorists to use the road, but because it is a private development, the money goes to theirprofits, and not into funding public transport in the region.

Friends of the Earth West Midlands Campaigner Chris Crean said:

"So called fast, effective relief from the M6 might be good for MEL but the real problem for the people of the West Midlands has been poor investment in public transport over many years. The Government needs to address the causes of congestion and travel demand, not just the symptoms.This requires sustainable land use planning across the region and investments in high quality public transport, walking and cycling facilities."

The opening of this toll road raises the debate on how the Government charges for motoring in the UK. The M6 Toll is a very crude charging mechanism using the technology of the last millennium, toll booths. But with satellite tracking expected to be in place for lorries by 2006, and potentially available for the 26 million cars on the roads within 10 years, there are opportunities to introduce charging to manage traffic more effectively. Such a system could allow variable charging to reduce demand at peak periods, or to reflect the public transport alternatives available. The money raised could be recycled back into investments in public transport to create more space on the road network and in turn different charges to the motorist.

Chris Crean continued:

"Charging for road use is the way forward. The London congestion charge kicked off the debate and the opening of the M6 Toll will take it forward. We will watch variable charging schemes using satellite technology with interest. These could give us a more efficient and reliable transport network for all, and most importantly, the money will be reinvested back into the public transport improvements we all need in our towns and cities to encourage us to leave our cars at home. Road-user charging must go hand in hand with better alternatives to the car, and better land-use planning to reduce the need to travel, as part of a wider policy of traffic reduction. The M6 Toll Road is not designed to do this.''

Notes

[1] Midlands Expressway Limited is a joint venture between Macquarie Bank of Australia and Autostrada, Italy.

More on M6 Toll at http://www.birminghamfoe.org.uk/bnrr/

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust