Chief defends half-full M6 toll

The road opened for business four years ago Have your say on the M6 toll

The firm which runs the M6 toll road says it is satisfied with figures which show it is operating at just over half its capacity.

A public inquiry in 1995 said the road needed 100,000 vehicles a week to justify its existence.

But government figures show a weekly average of 52,000 journeys.

Midlands Expressway Limited chief executive Tom Fanning said it would take "some considerable time" to reach the 100,000 vehicles a week figure.

He said: "I think the M6 toll is doing a brilliant job.

"Our weekday flow is on average about 51,000 and during the summer months we get to figures of about 70,000.

"We have had some 67 million trips and it's increasing every year."

He also hit back at suggestions from the Freight Transport Association that lorries were being deliberately priced off the road to save maintenance costs.

He said: "We're seeing 2,000 trucks a day now and that's about 5% of our customers and we're seeing that growing by about 25% in the last year."

Mr Fanning said the private company, which invested £485m in building the toll, was putting its prices up in January to help it service its debt and to meet maintenance costs.