UK M6 Toll marks 15 year milestone with 15 interesting facts
Since opening in December 2003, the M6toll has been a driving force in alleviating congestion and pollution in the Midlands, taking thousands of trucks, vans and cars off the M6 and local roads every day.
Drivers and commercial fleet operators rely on the M6 toll road to reach their destination ‘on time, every time’, reducing the time UK drivers spend behind the wheel.
As the quickest and most reliable route through the region, the private motorway is used by thousands of businesses, commuters and leisure users each year – over 18m journeys in 2018 – helping drivers steer clear of the most congested and accident prone sections of the M6.
To mark its 15th anniversary, the M6toll has released 15 facts that motorists might be surprised to discover:
- More than 50,000 vehicles use the M6toll every day, and the 250 millionth driver is expected in July 2019
- 12 million lorries have used M6toll since it opened, and at peak times over 80% of all cars making long-distance journeys use the road
- The M6toll has donated over £960,000 to local charities, schools and community projects and expects that sum to reach £1 million in donations in its 15th year
- As Britain’s only privately funded motorway, it was built with £1bn of private investment, and is still operated by Midlands Expressway Limited – no taxpayer funding has ever been used
- 2,500,000 Mills & Boon romance novels were pulped to create the motorway surface
- Over 400 new habitats have been created for various flora and fauna including badgers, bats, newts, otters and honey producing bees
- One million trees have been planted alongside the M6toll.
- The busiest day so far was Friday 25th May 2018 with 74,285 vehicles
- 4km of ancient hedgerow was transplanted during the construction of the road
- The team at M6toll created 18 new ecological ponds and 20 balancing ponds to manage water run-off from the road
- M6toll has donated £270,000 to Midlands Air Ambulance, that’s 108 life-saving missions
- If the M6toll stacked all of the Tags (electronic pre-payment device) sold over the last 15 years on top of each other, they would be as high as the Shanghai Tower – the tallest structure in China at over 600 metres
- M6toll’s own fleet of gritters have used 39,000 tonnes of salt to keep the Midlands moving
- 3m tonnes of sand and gravel were excavated and reused during its construction
- The M6toll is the safest motorway in the UK, and has its own fleet of rescue vehicles to attend to broken down vehicles (18,000 so far since opening)
