Midland Expressway has refuted claims that lorries are being priced off its M6 toll road and argues that freight traffic on the route is rising. Tom Fanning, Midland Expressway's chief executive, says: "The number of lorries using the M6 Toll has risen steadily since we opened in December 2003. We believe the trend will continue as companies realise, and benefit from, the value of shorter, more reliable journey times."
But the FTA says that the New Year hike in tolls
to £8 a day for lorries proves that Midland Expressway does not want HGV traffic on the road. Operators have shunned the route since it opened in 2003, says FTA's head of policy for the Midlands, Wales and South West, Stephen Kelly. "Maybe it is a bit unrealistic to expect the tolls to be £3 or £4 - sums that were mooted ten years ago - but it is a fact that lorries are conspicuous by their absence and it is to do with cost," Kelly tells Motor Transport.
To avoid the costs lorries are being forced to use the existing M6 around Spaghetti Junction and through the heart of Birmingham, which is subject to daily delays, he adds. * The FTA's East Midlands Freight Council has warned that local road pricing trials must recognise operators' needs and be cost neutral, following £1.8m of government funding
allocated to Nottingham, Leicester and Derby and their county councils to investigate the potential for road pricing.
