Traffic falls 10 percent on M6 toll road

Traffic figures on the M6 toll road continue to fall after the road owner released statistics showing 10% fewer motorists chose to pay to use the country’s only privately owned motorway.

During the final quarter of 2011 an average of 38,849 vehicles used the road each work day, a reduction of 9.9% compared with a year ago, despite harsh wintery weather conditions seriously affecting road users in December 2010.

But this figure slid down to 34,286 when all days were taken into account, 10.7% fewer than 12 months earlier.

However, Tom Fanning, CEO at toll road owner Midland Expressway, rules out cutting charges: “We have reduced the prices for some vehicle classes at certain times, but there are no plans to discount across the board as we believe this would not generate a large amount of additional traffic, given the general decline in road traffic in the UK.

“Economic conditions have affected traffic volumes on all roads. In addition, the improvement works on the M6 have created additional competition and contributed to lower volumes. Discounts continue to apply for regular users.”