Just had a trip to Kent from North Wales via the M6 Toll. Disgusted to have to pay £8 each way for a SWB Ford Transit Devon Discovery! It all works on the height of the vehicle at the front axle i.e. if the vehicle is over 1.3m high and 2 axles a SWB van designated as Class 4 will pay the same as a full length coach and £1 less than a car and caravan which would be Class 3. No wonder it's almost deserted - anyone else have the same problem or have I been ripped off again?
When one of the directors of the owners of the M6 toll announced that they would charge what they liked when it was built, it was then I decided I would not use it under any circumstance. He was sacked later for making that statement, but the cat was out of the bag.
and only company cars and lorries are using it. why can't we get something right for once. It's not as though we are the first, the continent has been doing it for years.
we use the toll road each time we go up to the lakes, which is about a 6 hour journey for us - it's a lovely quiet easy stretch of road, gives you a bit of a break after so many motorway miles....we don't like to get caught up in all the traffic around birmingham, especially with the kids in the car and pulling a trailer, the midland expressway is definately less hassle and stress...at the end of the day you don't have to use it you could just stay on the M6...the expressway is a private road and so if you want the benefit of using it we have to pay. I think if we lived in the area we wouldn't use it because of the cost but as a one-off once a year then £7-£8 isn't breaking the bank.
I live near it, and won't use it on principle. It's overpriced, the surrounding roads are much improved and a lot quieter now.
I have noticed all the signs have been changed, all routes now take you down the toll road if you don't know the area, whereas before the M6 or M42 was the normal route (and still is). Local runs have been re-signed to use the toll road, and if you make a mistake, you're on the toll road by accident.
I reguarly use the M1/M6/M42, and the gantry signs always advise of heavy traffic on the M6, and advise using the toll road. I still use the M6, and oddly, it's usually clear, so I stopped believing these messages a long time ago.
Lorries don't use it much, as it is dear, there are a few more on there now though, a couple of years ago there were next to none.
Many Thanks for all your thoughts and opinions. I might try the M6 next time but it's only very occasionally we have to go that way. Too much to see and do in North Wales!
I have noticed that the gantries always warn of heavy traffic ahead, and yet now that the Motorways have been improved, there rarely is any traffic to talk about. As I go from the M6 to the M5, the toll road is no use anyway.
What is annoying is that the three lanes reduce to one for those not using the toll road, and two for the few that do use it.
Seems to me that as the Motorway is a publicly owned road and should get preference over a private road, the evidence of dodgy gantry signs and giving public highway to a private company strongly suggests that someone big has trousered a lot of dosh
Having suffered for years J12 - J6 of the M6 when I lived in the Midlands, on the rare occasions that I return I think the tolls are worth the saving in time and hassle. Of course they're overpriced but it's a lot better than it used to be when it could take me several hours to get from Cannock to Coventry on the M6.
I got stung for £7 at 11:30pm last night. I made that BIG MISTAKE and THOUGHT I had changed lanes from the M42 on the left, over to the M6 on the right. WRONG WRONG WRONG. It was the M6 (toll). Okj it WAS my fault, it was late, it was raining and I was tired having driven up from the Dover ferry.
What really annoys me is that the layout of this TOLL ROAD has be deliberately designed to dupe people into paying the toll. The M6 Toll should have exited the main M6 carriageway via slip roads on the left and the way it is.
Forgot to mention, anyone travelling south from the northwest of England along the M6 during peak periods and wanting to avoid Wolverhampton / Birmingaham or the M6 toll. Try coming off at Stoke J15 the A500 then follow the A50 across to country to pickup the M1.
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Topic: M6 Toll Fees
