News release
17 January 2023
Almost 24 million journeys made over the River Mersey in Halton in 2022
New figures released by merseyflow show that residents, commuters and visitors in Halton made almost 24 million journeys over the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges in 2022 as year-on-year journey levels continue to rise since Covid.
This includes growing journey numbers across the new look Silver Jubilee Bridge, with October and November 2022 the busiest months for traffic yet since it re-opened in early 2021.
Journey levels are up and PCN levels are down on the two toll bridges with journey numbers for October-December 2022 rising by 300,000 compared to the same period last year, whilst year-on-year PCN numbers continue to fall.
The newly released quarterly figures from merseyflow include trips made across both the Mersey Gateway Bridge and the Silver Jubilee Bridge, both of which are covered by the same merseyflow toll/charging system. They cover October-December 2022, and show:
- Almost 24 million journeys were made across the two bridges during 2022 – this made it the second busiest year for journeys for traffic over the river in Halton since the Mersey Gateway Bridge opened in 2017
- Journey numbers are up and PCN levels are down year on year – quarterly journey numbers for the autumn 2022 period were up by 300,000 compared to 2021, while PCN numbers fell by 5,000
- October and November were the busiest months ever for the new look Silver Jubilee Bridge – and it almost reached the landmark of 1million journeys across the quarter, reaching 980,000
- A record number of journeys were paid for using the merseyflow Quick-Pay app – which now handles over 100,000 payments every month
- Over 97.4% of journeys were paid for on time – the vast majority of people are paying for their journeys by midnight the day after they cross
Mike Bennett, Managing Director of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said: “It’s reassuring to see that journey levels are continuing to rise year-on-year as we recover from the pandemic and people are resuming their normal activities. Especially as the almost 24 million journeys made over the two bridges in Halton are now much easier and quicker than we’ve been used to in the past. We’re proud that people can rely on the time savings the bridges continue to provide and it’s great to see more people making use of the re-opened Silver Jubilee Bridge as an alternative route across the River Mersey.”
Neil Conway, Chief Executive of merseyflow, said: “The vast majority of crossings over the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges are being paid for on time using our auto pay systems, including our Quick-Pay app, which we can see is continuing to result in a lower number of PCNs being issued. We’re continuing to make improvements to the ways in which our regular customers can manage their plans and we will be roiling these out over the coming year.”
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.