2 quid to miss Birmingham... bargain.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/3298789.stm

"Motorists will be offered the chance to avoid congestion in the West
Midlands by paying £2 to drive along the 27-mile M6 Toll, formerly known
as the Birmingham Northern Relief Road."

 

It's great, keeps all those suvverners further away from me.

 

About time we had more toll roads.

 

Linger wrote:

Assuming the money earned is spent on roads and nothing else (or at
least nothing unrelated), I completely agree, it's one thing the frogs
have got right. PErfect roads that you pay extra for, or less than
perfect roads at no extra expense.

 

You'll pay for that remark.

 

<Cynic>
The M6 Toll Road has been built by a private company[1]. Most of the
income from it will go to the shareholders.
</C>

[1] In fact, a consortium of companies, one being Aussie and one being
Italian, I think.

 

More toll postings.

 

+----------+
| PLEASE |
| DO NOT |
| FEED THE |
| TOLLS |
+----------+
| |
| |
.\|.||/..
(tm)

 

Quality.

 

Sorby wrote:

Very good!

 

If they were perfect, I'd agree. Nailing a fully-loaded 1.6 Cavalier
to the ferry, I found a patch of "chausee deformee" on a downhill
stretch at ~120, when I'd been holding the thing WFO for several
miles. Talk about instant lane change - followed by rapid underwear
change.

 

CT wrote:

If you have to pay to get in, does that mean it's a private road?
Speed limits?

 

so...the road is in effect paying for itself.

What's the problem with that?

 

[of M6 toll road]

Nothing.

It's just that after hearing both pro- and anti- toll road
opinions on the news this morning, the cynic in me thinks
that money will go to the shareholders when it could be
returned into the upkeep of the road. We can only wait
and see.

One of the anti-toll campaigners[1] expressed a view[2] that the
reason that the HGV charges are relatively high[3] was that MEL[4]
don't actually want that many HGVs using it, as they cause more
damage than PLGs and maintenance is therefore higher.

[1] From Friends of the Earth, IIRC.
[2] Not necessarily the same as mine.
[3] Listening to some of the HGV drivers' points of view.
[4] Midlands Expressway Litd.

 

Although presumably the company (and therefore the shareholders) will
remain liable for the long-term mainetnance of the road? Or have I
missed something here?

 

Presumably you opposed the privatisation of gas, electric, railways,
etc...?

 

No, not at all[1]. I'm not opposed to the toll road either.
But there's always a bit of cynicism in me that gives me these
nagging thoughts...

[1] I'm still not convinced that privatisation of the railways has
been good, mind, but then we can only guess what state they could
have ended up in if it hadn't happened.

 

But in the case of the railways, it's even more clearly a crap system.
There are massive government subsidies, which go directly to
shareholders as dividends. The same applies as you mentioned with
regard to the upkeep of the tollroad - if the profits were used for
maintenance, we'd have a better infrastructure.

 

I'm surprised Tollbloke hasn't commented yet. ...

 

perhaps no-one has tolled him about it?