mjmooney Posted May 1, 2017 Author VT Supporter Share Posted May 1, 2017 2 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said: Your coffee is way too strong. You can't tell how strong it is from the colour - only how milky it is. Looks about right to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 (edited) 55 minutes ago, mjmooney said: I never play Sgt. Pepper. My least favourite Beatles album, by some distance. This Revolver is the real work of genius in their catalogue I do find I go through Phases though when I like the earlier stuff better and then will revert to liking the older more complex stuff again Edited May 1, 2017 by tonyh29 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brommy Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 11 hours ago, HanoiVillan said: Has the M6 toll road been a success? I believe the general consensus is no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brommy Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 (edited) 11 hours ago, HanoiVillan said: Has the M6 toll road been a success? I think only the toll operator and possibly a couple of government officials would consider it a success but it would also depend on what the terms of success are. I had hoped the toll would take about 25% of the traffic off the M6 and make a noticeable difference but I'd guess it's more like 5%. The stats might prove that M6 delays have been reduced but I'd be surprised if it's more than, for example, a 40 minute delay being reduced to 35 minutes. The toll operator has purposely set the HGV prices too high because they know HGV road wear is far greater than that of cars and they don't want the maintenance costs. Edited May 1, 2017 by brommy Fleshing out a double post. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 50 minutes ago, mjmooney said: You can't tell how strong it is from the colour - only how milky it is. Looks about right to me. That's kind of what I meant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 34 minutes ago, brommy said: I believe the general consensus is no. That's what I heard too, was talking to a construction cost consultant last week, started with moaning about how shit a drive Warwick is for everyone on site got round to the toll, it loses about £25m a year, it cost £900m to build its problem is that it assumes that the congestion on the m6 was caused by people passing through rather than the 3m people who happen to live in the West Midlands, if you look at the m5/m6 junction or m40 or m42 in the morning it's easy to tell that assumptions wrong, the motorway system in the midlands can't cope in pretty much any direction 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 Thank you @brommy @villa4europe that's sort of what I had assumed from the lack of a rush to build more of them, but I was driving past the junction for it last night and realised I hadn't heard anybody talk about the project for a decade or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 On 29/04/2017 at 10:39, BOF said: Why the hell there's no 'n' in restaurateur. Someone pinched it and put it in vintner. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted May 1, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted May 1, 2017 When I listen to Sgt Pepper, which I rarely do, I generally find that I listen to the first three tracks then skip ahead to the final two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted May 2, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) On 30/04/2017 at 23:52, HanoiVillan said: Has the M6 toll road been a success? As someone who lives "down south" who regularly heads "up north" I'd have to say yes. It's money well spent every day of the week for me. I'd imagine though, given how few cars are ever on it, that it's a big loss-making exercise. EDIT: Beeb article from a few years ago is pretty damning: Quote It was plugged as a way of relieving pressure on the M6 and making motorists' lives easier. But 10 years on, the M6 Toll is handling half the number of vehicles it was intended for. Is it a complete failure? The M6 Toll - a 27-mile route between Cannock and Coleshill - has been controversial since it opened in 2003. It has produced "no net benefit for drivers whilst causing huge and irreversible environmental damage," according to the Campaign for Better Transport. Edited May 2, 2017 by choffer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted May 2, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted May 2, 2017 I'd wager if the M6 Toll was longer it would be more successful, or at least more popular. I use it fairly regularly if I'm heading up to Manchester etc. However, I can see how people would think it wasn't worth paying the £5.50 or whatever it is to skip 20 miles of traffic when you're just going to be stuck in traffic when you rejoin the normal M6 anyway. If it went all the way or most of the way to Manchester or similar then it would be a no brainer to use it when you're heading up there, imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brommy Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 2 hours ago, Stevo985 said: I'd wager if the M6 Toll was longer it would be more successful, or at least more popular. I use it fairly regularly if I'm heading up to Manchester etc. However, I can see how people would think it wasn't worth paying the £5.50 or whatever it is to skip 20 miles of traffic when you're just going to be stuck in traffic when you rejoin the normal M6 anyway. If it went all the way or most of the way to Manchester or similar then it would be a no brainer to use it when you're heading up there, imo. If the M6 toll went to Manchester it would be 4 times the length so it's not unreasonable to assume it would be 4 times the cost to use it. I think most car and HGV drivers would object to paying £22 and £44 respectively. Would you pay £20+ to save typically 30 to 60 minutes whilst driving from south east Brum to Manchester? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted May 2, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted May 2, 2017 13 minutes ago, brommy said: Would you pay £20+ to save typically 30 to 60 minutes whilst driving from south east Brum to Manchester? Yep. Time is money. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted May 2, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted May 2, 2017 15 minutes ago, brommy said: If the M6 toll went to Manchester it would be 4 times the length so it's not unreasonable to assume it would be 4 times the cost to use it. I think most car and HGV drivers would object to paying £22 and £44 respectively. Would you pay £20+ to save typically 30 to 60 minutes whilst driving from south east Brum to Manchester? Depending on when I was travelling then yes. I absolutely would. But that's beside the point. I think you've misunderstood what I was saying. I'm actually agreeing with you. What I mean is £5.50 is a lot of money for the length of journey it offers. I guess a lot of people think it's not worth paying the money when they're either only going 20 odd miles OR the toll will only offer them a small part of their journey traffic free. It's not worth it in a lot of cases. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midfielder Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) What surprises me, to this day, is that the m6 toll section was even built. That "some driving force" came up with the idea then secured the momentum to sit politicians, planners, councillors, contractors together to come up with a way of spending nearly £1 billion to build the toll road. Then, hypocritically, to tout it for sale to private buyers for £2 billion (this year), placing the purpose of that road and the cost of using that road at risk and into the hands of big business whose probable market-forces interests relating to their subsequent operating of the road and the charges they set for its usage, as even less intrinsic and capitalist than of our own government's tenure with it. Not sure if it would have been a billion better spent in other ways to reduce the congestion, there were surely other ways of reducing congestion for the same money. I wouldn't know, that's not my area. I'm just an old cynical git, but as a public sector worker, that billion, to me, was spent as effectively as our outlay on Bosko Balaban. Producing more lanes on sections (where previously applied Compulsory Purchase Orders have been served and exist rather than the Orders placed on all the land and expense to buy the land to build that motorway), and traffic measures for the recipient tributary roads that inherit what gets off the m6 at its busiest junctions, subsidised Megabus style services for the major destinations that could take people off the road for such commutes they need the m6 for, i dont know this is just 30 secs of thought. I'd make a good politician me, as someone who hates mostly everything about it! Vote for me, we can have a Villa Fan in Buckingham Palace and one in Number 10. Cameron's time as PM excluded on a technicality (after the West Ham "unpleasantness"). Nobody on here would, in any interview, even if pressured, forget what team they support. Unforgivable. Edited May 2, 2017 by Midfielder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brommy Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 38 minutes ago, choffer said: Yep. Time is money. Time is money to a point, as demonstrated by the lack of vehicles currently using the overpriced M6 toll. I think the toll prices should vary according to how much time would be saved compared to the delays on the M6 advertised a few minutes before drivers need to decide whether to use the toll road. Perhaps a flat fee of £2 plus 10p per minute saved. "Only 10 minutes delay? Nah, I'll keep my £3 for a pint." "An hour delay! I'd rather pay £8 to avoid sitting in that!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 I only use the toll road if I can claim it back through work. Living where I do, I can drive to Junction 12 of the M6 fairly easy and join it there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 There's a fair few people who can claim it on expenses in my office who love it as I said before it serves very little if any purpose to those of us that live in the midlands and I can't imagine there are lots driving from Manchester to the south on a daily basis, don't know how much it would have cost to make the m5, m6, m42 all 4 lanes wide but that would have been the answer, I'm not actually even sure the m5/m6 junction is as bad as the m42 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brommy Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 The M6 toll is also no use for me. I live south west of Birmingham, near J4 of the M5 and J1 of the M42 so when traveling to and from Manchester, which I do 5 times every week, the toll would add about 20 miles to my journey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted May 2, 2017 Administrator Share Posted May 2, 2017 5 minutes ago, brommy said: The M6 toll is also no use for me. I live south west of Birmingham, near J4 of the M5 and J1 of the M42 so when traveling to and from Manchester, which I do 5 times every week, the toll would add about 20 miles to my journey. But how much time will the 18 month closure on the M5 j1-2 add to your journey? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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