The favourite to become West Midlands mayor has backed nationalising the M6 Toll road to ease the congestion on the region鈥檚 roads.
Labour candidate Si么n Simon is the latest figure to highlight the insanity of having 26 miles of near empty motorway while traffic is gridlocked on the old M6 through Birmingham and the Black Country.
And as the man most likely to be in the mayor's office next year his backing is a major step forward for the campaign to get the private pay-as-you-go road into public ownership and free to use.
In the run up to the 2015 General Election, Birmingham Mail readers called for the road to be nationalised in our but so far the Government has refused to consider it.
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference, Mr Simon said: 鈥淚 can鈥檛 see what the arguments can be for not taking it into public ownership and running it by and for the West Midlands.
鈥淓very working day and at weekends during the summer drivers face massive queues as they make their way onto the overloaded M6 through the West Midlands conurbation.
鈥淭his has a knock-on impact onto local roads throughout the urban area and creates enormous problems for drivers joining from the M5.
鈥淭he M6 Toll isn鈥檛 working and never has. It was predicted that it would be used by 75,000 vehicles per day and this never anything like been reached.
鈥淚nstead, the volume of traffic on the M6 increases every year.
鈥淲hereas the M6 Toll is currently up for sale and could be bought for less than the cost of congestion suffered by the West Midlands every year.
鈥淲e need to find ways of making it work and providing relief to the parallel M6 and the feeder M5.鈥
He is seeking the backing of Greater Manchester and Liverpool mayoral candidates whose residents and businesses would also benefit from a freer flowing M6 route through the West Midlands.
In February a fatal crash led to the closure of the M6 for 24 hours and brought the region's roads to a standstill, leaving thousands of motorists stuck in queues for hours on end. The response of Highways England and the emergency services was criticised in an inquiry chaired by the West Midlands Police Commissioner David Jamieson.
Watch below: Queues after fatal crash on the M6 in February 2016
Mr Simon said: 鈥淐hambers of commerce estimate that it costs the region 拢2 billion a year.
鈥淚 suspect that is an underestimate, let alone the cost to businesses in the North West and South West. As well as the misery for commuters and private users.鈥
Last year, the West Midlands Combined Authority, during talks over the region鈥檚 devolution deal, proposed spending 拢15 million to buy space on the M6 Toll at peak times to ease congestion.
But even this was rejected by the Government in the eventual devolution settlement.
Mr Simon, as Labour candidate, is front runner in the race to become the West Midlands鈥 first elected mayor next May.
So far he faces challenges from Tory candidate and John Lewis managing director Andy Street and Birmingham City University director and Lib Dem candidate Beverley Nielsen.
