As the M6 Toll turns 20, the BBC looks at the highs and lows of the past two decades.
It cost £900m, angered environmentalists and transport campaigners alike and has led bosses to repeatedly defend it during its lifetime. As the M6 Toll turns 20, the BBC looks at the highs and lows of the past two decades.Former Transport Secretary Alistair Darling cut the ribbon on the M6 Toll on 9 December, 2003 with the barriers initially raising just after 10:00 GMT.
The initial price for the 27-mile route between Cannock and Coleshill was £3 for cars, £6 for vans and £11 for HGVs, with the first 10 million vehicles receiving a £1 discount. The idea had been proposed 25 years earlier - with the Conservatives identifying a need to relieve congestion on the M6 back in the 1980s. Initially known as the Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR), there were objections from families and environmental groups. A number of protest camps were set up along the route between November 1997 and January 1999, when the last one was cleared.The route was plugged as a way of relieving pressure on the M6 to make motorists' lives easier but proved controversial from its openin
M6 Toll Controversy Transport Motorists Congestion
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