Tolling along the M6

21 September 2015

Visited the team running the M6 toll road in the West Midlands. While this stretch of road is not in our new remit for users of the Strategic Road Network, it was interesting to see for a number of reasons.

We wanted to understand what the signs are like which flag up the toll road. How much time/information do users have to decide whether to take the toll? Why do many users get on the toll and then spend ages at the services – people seem to really like them! What effect on consumer expectations does payment have? Would that help us understand expectations from the free-at-point-of-use major road network?

Overall, users seem to like the toll (numbers are increasing by the way – are roadworks on the M6 itself causing people to shift?) and are pleased with their choice.

The road and the embankments are very well maintained and all the staff we met had a very strong customer first attitude. Eventually it might be interesting to carry out some work benchmarking the toll against other roads.

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