A focus on HGV and vans helped increase revenues on the M6 toll last year despite overall traffic decreasing, new figures revealed.
Toll road owner Midlands Expressway (MEL) said turnover was £139m in the year ending 31 December 2024. It made a pre-tax profit of £33.6m.
Restated figures for 2023 showed that this represented a £4.4m increase in revenue and a £3.9m rise in profit.
MEL said traffic on the 27-mile motorway had decreased by 6.2% during the year, to 6.6m vehicles with an annual average daily traffic of 45,287 vehicles compared to 48,463 in 2023.
It said this drop was due to improvements in the level of service along the parallel section of the M6, as well as a deterioration in service on the M42 section south of the toll road.
“Significant works being carried out on the M42 utilising narrow lanes and speed restrictions has had a negative impact on travel through the corridor and traffic volumes,” MEL said.
“In Q4 2024, some of the works were completed, but disruption remained with HS2 works beginning in June 2024.
“Despite inflation stabilisation in the year, the effect of the general macroeconomic environment is also thought to have impacted overall traffic.”
However, it said an increase in operating income was due to higher toll revenues derived from price changes, as well as “favourable class mixes against 2023”.
It said: “HGV and van markets continue to be a key focus, demonstrating the value proposition of the M6 toll to businesses as part of a segmented market growth strategy and a strong business development and key account management team.
“This has led to increased usage from existing accounts and new account openings, considerably aided by the early deployment of ANPR trials offering frictionless ANPR journeys linked to online payments and simpler fleet management,” it added.
“Traffic volumes in early 2025 continue to show a similar trend to 2024 and, given that works on HS2 are ongoing, the effect is expected to persist for the near term.”
