News release
20 April 2022
Journey numbers over the Mersey in Halton at their highest level in two years
Over two million people crossed the River Mersey in Halton using the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee Bridges in March 2022, the highest volume of traffic in over two years.
In the first three months of 2022 traffic volumes had increased by almost 40% compared to the same period last year, but remained around 7% lower than pre-pandemic levels in the January-March of 2019.
February 2022 also marked the one-year anniversary of the re-opening of the Silver Jubilee Bridge, which has seen around 3.5 million journeys from Halton residents, businesses and commuters since it opened as a local alternative to the Mersey Gateway.
The newly released quarterly figures from merseyflow include trips made across both the Mersey Gateway Bridge and the Silver Jubilee Bridge. They cover January-March 2022, and show:
- March 2022 journey numbers at their highest level since October 2019 – over two million journeys were made across the bridges in a single month for the first time since before the pandemic started
- Silver Jubilee Bridge traffic increased whilst Mersey Gateway traffic dipped slightly – Silver Jubilee Bridge traffic grew very slightly as a proportion of the total traffic across the river, but almost 85% of crossings so far in 2022 were made across the new bridge
- Over 97.5% of journeys were paid for on time – the vast majority of people are paying for their journeys by midnight the day after they cross
- Over 90% of payments are made through digital or automated channels – the merseyflow website, the merseyflow quick pay app and auto top-up options are widely used by customers
Mike Bennett, Managing Director of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said: “We’ve seen a minor shift in the first few months of 2022, with a slightly higher number of journeys made using the Silver Jubilee Bridge than in previous months. It looks like traffic volumes are now returning to pre-pandemic levels, with people making more frequent journeys, so it will be interesting to see how the traffic levels vary between the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee Bridges.”
Neil Conway, Chief Executive of merseyflow, said: “It’s great to see customers continuing to choose our digital and automated payment options to pay for their journeys on time. Everyone can save up to 10% on the cost of their journeys and make it easier to pay by registering on our website at www.merseyflow.co.uk.
“We’re committed to developing these channels and our payment options further to ensure that crossing the Mersey in Halton is as simple and easy as possible for residents, commuters and businesses.”
The quarterly merseyflow dashboard provides a range of in-depth statistics and graphs which show information on the number of crossings made, average daily traffic, number of PCNs issued, methods of payment, payments made on time, total revenue, and what percentage of this comes from PCNs.