The government has announced that a new 50-mile toll highway is to be built. It will run along side the existing M6 from Birmingham to Manchester and join the M6 toll road.
The government believes it will ease pressure on both the new and existing roads and will cause less disruption that widening the current route.
The news has been welcomed by motoring groups but criticised by environmental lobbies.
Would you pay to go on toll motorways? Are they the answer for the UK's transport problems? What is your view?
This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.
The following comments reflect the balance of opinion we have received so far:
 | SUGGEST A DEBATE This topic was suggested by Peter Barber, Scotland:  Will an M6 of 10-12 lanes save the North-West of England from gridlock, or cause it?  |
If they really, seriously, improved the rail system, with reliable, frequent, clean trains and enough seats for everyone wanting to travel, they wouldn't have to build more motorway lanes. While they're about it they should clear up the ridiculous fare system - there are so many rates that inevitably you end up feeling quite certain you could have got a better deal somewhere else, and that you've been ripped off even if you haven't. They seem to manage a decent rail service in other countries of Europe - why can't we?
June, Birmingham, UK
Driving along the congested M6 (non toll) stretch undoubtedly costs more in fuel through constant stop/start than the �2 fee for the toll road. This does not take into account the cost of time that is lost sitting on the motorway waiting for it to move again. Personally, I am happy to pay the toll if it means I can more reliably predict my ETA at intended destination. However, I would suggest that an annual scheme is devised that provides deductions for frequent users.
Gary Naylor, County Durham
| On a lighter note it would also narrow the North-South divide |
The sooner they put this on the M25 the better - a toll to use it (rather than a fee to park on it!) On a lighter note it would also narrow the North-South divide.
JR Masters, Horsham, England
I am a regular traveller to Scotland every three months or so to visit my grand children. I find it a joy tot ravel on the new toll road and support its extension to Manchester.
Alex Torbet, Kidlington, Oxfordshire
Yes - the new Toll road is brilliant. 50 more miles would be most welcome.
Jim, UK
On a recent trip up the M6 to Wales, I sailed along the old motorway quite happily, whilst the local radio was spewing out warnings of huge jams and delays on the toll M6! You lot carry on paying for your executive roads - it just leaves more room for us regular drivers.
David, London, UK
My wife got lost on the way to Wales from Kent and ended up on the M6 Toll. Very quickly, she ended up even further out of her way!
Simon Mallett, Maidstone, UK
No. It would be madness to build yet another motorway and an environmental disaster. This money should be spent on improving our declining rail service. People should come before cars.
Fred, Birmingham, UK
The pricing structure has to be right. On the existing M6 toll it's a reasonable �2 for a car but for a motor caravan with a trailer it is �10 because as it is rated as a commercial vehicle! Common sense prevails on the Severn bridge where the charge is the same as for a car.
Jon Wolfe, Luton, Beds
Yes I travel lots by car, but I am fed up of a government that is supposed to be greener than the Tories, carrying on building on this green and pleasant land. Get freight off the roads and onto the railways, as well as many car drivers (including myself). Put the money that is set aside for road building, into the railways!
Dave Wilson, Manchester
We don't have hypothecation in the UK, our road and petrol tax is not earmarked for road upkeep - it just goes into the general pot for distribution. If this road is built and managed by a private consortia then the government avoid the cost of building and also save on the maintenance of the existing M6 through less usage. If you choose to use it then you pay, just like you may choose private health care or bottled water etc. Indirect taxes may be unfair due to their universal application but that's also their major appeal - they are very difficult to evade unlike income tax (black economy and clever accountants)!
Hugh, Berks
Tolls eh - far easier to implement a "one car per household" policy. Items were rationed in WWII, and people accepted it, so why not do it now with cars. It would solve congestion overnight.
Paul Marsh, Poole
| This is the pragmatic way forward |
I think the toll road is great! I use it every week and it cuts my journey time down with none of the unpredictability of delays! I have regularly used the existing M6 Toll road. This is the pragmatic way forward. Customers have a choice and the French have proved that this approach is workable; they have created toll roads but retained the alternative N roads.
Hugh Ormerod, Winchester There are considerably fewer accidents on the toll road and the traffic flows far more quickly - and the reason is that there are so few lorries on the toll road! Until we ban lorries from motorways there will always be congestion! Get them on the railways and canals again! The best way to reduce the M6 congestion would be to build the 2 lane toll road for lorries only and ban them off that stretch of the M6 proper thus returning it to a 3 lane carriageway instead of the single lane one it has become.
Andy, Leigh, Lancs
| Sort out the transport and we won't need toll roads |
If we had a viable, accessible and affordable public transport system in this country I would use it. In Lincolnshire if we want to go anywhere by such a method we need several spare days and a bank loan. For me to go to work via public transport I would have to leave home at 4 a.m. and by the time I got to work I would have time to produce one hours work before setting off home, getting there after 10 p.m. Sort out the transport and we won't need toll roads.
Dave Holmes, Lincoln, UK This is an insane plan. We're talking a four-carriageway, ten lane road, mile after mile of it. It goes beyond anything seen outside of urban areas even here in the US. This is a quick fix plan for an urban motorway - are Cheshire and Staffordshire planned to become urban areas? Wouldn't it be better to think about an extra track in each direction for the West Coast Main Line?
Daniel Bliss, Chicago, USA
I drive in mainland Europe on a regular basis. Toll roads there are common place and I do not have an issue in paying for using these roads. They are generally freer of traffic, have better maintained road surfaces, and the service stations are miles ahead of anything the UK has to offer. As long as the tolls are properly used to maintain the road and upgrade it as required, and not taken in taxes, then I would have no hesitation in paying to use a toll road in the UK.
Ken Smith, Glasgow
Yes! It's brilliant! Cuts journey time right down. A discount for regular users might be nice though?
Rach, UK
I feel uneasy about a road system just for the rich. However, having used the M6 Toll, if having more toll roads is the only way to expand the road network which is currently crippling the economy then I am in favour. There is no real alternative to cars still. The toll prices should be kept reasonable though.
Graham Holmes, Warwick, Warwickshire
I'd pay, if the road were free of trucks, caravans and other slow traffic. Also if the speed limit was raised on this section to a decent speed like 100mph.
Mike, London, UK
Great. A second motorway chewing a chunk out of the Staffordshire countryside.
Mike, Stoke-on-Trent
If all drivers kept to the left-most lane, our roads wouldn't be clogged up with idiots sitting in the middle lane with nothing on the inside (thus reducing the road to effectively 2 lanes) - and we wouldn't need to build the toll roads!
Phil Adams, Milton Keynes, UK
Even allowing for road tax, petrol, tolls and the other costs of motoring we still seem unable to wrestle people from behind the steering wheel and onto public transport do we?
Lorraine, St Albans, UK
| We don't want to pay again to use roads for which we are already so heavily taxed |
I think this government have completely lost touch with the people that put them there. We don't want to pay again to use roads for which we are already so heavily taxed. Surely this money would be better spent improving existing rail links between Birmingham and Manchester?
Simon Edmonds, Leicester I would pay a small charge for using a Toll motorway (5-10p per mile say), but only a an alternative is available. The Green fraternity are right about us using cars to much, but public transport is not a realistic, cost effective alternative, especially for long journeys.
Alex Moon, Reading
I personally use the current M6 toll road simply because it cuts about half an hour off my journey time to Manchester. I think opening another one is disgusting, what do we pay tax on the cars and petrol for? It's yet another tax from labour and broken promise.
Jason, Milton Keynes, England
I would be happy to pay to drive on the roads as long as road tax and fuel tax is abolished, as they are supposed to pay for the upkeep of our roads and transportation infrastructure.
Rachel, Oxfordshire, UK
| More penalties on the long suffering motorist |
To use the motorway we would have to pay. Just another ruse to pay for other services. More penalties on the long suffering motorist.
Carole, UK Interesting to see this is being introduced away from the worst congested road - the M25. I will have to pay to use it. The alternative, the West Coast Rail Line, has been unreliable and partially closed for nearly two years now. So much for choice!
Jenny King, Bury, UK
Oh Yes!! I travelled from Herts-Merseyside-Herts using the new Midland expressway. 3 hours door-to-door. The last time I did that journey in that time was in the 70's. Birmingham, what Birmingham? �2 each way well spent!
David Clarke, Herts
Only if they abolish road tax. This is another stealth tax from the government to bleed more money off the motorist. They don't increase car tax so motorists think they are having a deal but the truth is they will have to pay elsewhere just like toll roads and congestion charges. If they had a half decent public transport system then fair enough but we don't how else are most people to get to work when buses and trains don't run on time and when there are strikes? Rip off Britain again.
Marcus, Wales I already do. It's known as road fund duty and fuel tax.
Simon, Manchester, England
This Government has proved their brilliance at indirect taxes for the masses and so continuing the spiral of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The gap just grows and grows, rather surprising for a labour government. I wonder how much longer true labour supporters are going to put up with this.
Raymond Rudaizky, London, UK
I travel between Manchester and Birmingham regularly. I do use M6 toll and it's fantastic. It cuts nearly an hour off my journey time some days. We will have to see what happens as it gets more popular - assuming it does. I wouldn't pay for it if it didn't save me a lot of time and petrol. My use of any new toll roads would be determined by time saved and price.
Pieter Dyson, Manchester, UK I regularly use the Midland Expressway when travelling between London and Scotland and have found it to significantly speed up my journey. I would welcome an additional 50 miles of toll road to further reduce journey times.
Andrew S, London & Ayr
Toll roads will not work, why? Just look at the Dartford crossing at peaks times its a snails pace of full stop. This leads to further delays along the motorway network. In England we have a to higher volume of road traffic to operate a toll efficiently.
Clive, Dartford, Kent
| It caters for both budget drivers with time and those who value time more |
Using tolls to support a 2-tier road network does not in itself seem a bad idea... since it caters for both budget drivers with time and those who value time more. However, I feel uneasy about a private road available only to those who can pay... If the toll profits returned to the government (hence to us) then it would be fairer, since everyone would benefit. That way those in a hurry effectively pay to everyone else to let them move ahead.
James, Buckingham, UK As normal, Southerner's have free motorways, a subsidised train system for wealthy commuting City workers. Then us in the midlands and north have to pay to use a much over due motorway.
Steve, Birmingham, UK
Yes, provided the pricing structure is fair and that the revenue gained from them results in a reduction in the costs of items such as the Road Fund License and tax on fuel etc. After all, the aim of the scheme is to reduce congestion, not simply to make more money for the government isn't it?
Rich, UK
If the government removed vehicle road tax and put tolls on all major roads then I think we would be all happy - sadly what will happen is we will have to pay for both.
George Campbell-White, Norwich I'd rather the government just tell us honestly how much a decent public transport system would cost for this country, and then set general taxation accordingly. At least then we'd all have a choice come election time.
Chris, Colchester, UK
Yes absolutely. As a regular traveller to France I am more than willing to pay the tolls and achieve my journey time. Its fantastic. Lets hope they do that here. But this is not the answer to the problem. The answer is to educate motorway drivers on how to behave on the motorway and the road planners on how to design the junctions, roundabouts and placing of zebra crossings etc. The FLOW of traffic is the key issue in this country, not the quantity.
MS , London
It makes me cry just thinking about all the wildlife that will suffer as a result of this extra motorway. The detrimental environmental impact far outstrips the benefits that the pampered motorists will accrue. How much compensation will the wildlife receive for their inconvenience?
Richard Stone, Lowestoft, England If only the government would release the same land for new rail tracks. Then we could actually work on improving public transport.
Mark Fulford, Southampton, UK
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