You may be planning to take the motorway north from London towards the Lake District or Scotland in this holiday period. If so, you have a choice of routes as you approach Birmingham. You can stick to the original M6. Or you can pay £4.70 and use Britain’s only modern toll road.

The M6 (toll) takes a more northerly but no more direct route and rejoins the main highway 27 miles farther north. There is not much to distinguish the M6 from the M6 (toll) except the toll. And that makes a big difference. The toll road carries barely a quarter of the traffic of the old motorway, and almost no trucks. Driving on it is a considerably more pleasant and relaxing experience at all times, and especially when the roads are busy. Even the motorway service station seems more congenial. And travellers stop there: they are not using the toll road because they are in a hurry.