News release
17th July 2024
Busiest month ever recorded for crossings over the River Mersey in Halton
Over 2.26 million journeys were made across the River Mersey in Halton using the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee Bridges in May 2024, marking the highest volume of traffic recorded since the Mersey Gateway Bridge opened.
In total, a record-breaking 6.22 million crossings were made using the bridges between April – June 2024.
Over 2 million vehicles are consistently making the journey over the bridges each month, with the vast majority choosing to pay for their crossings using digital payment methods.
The newly released quarterly figures from merseyflow include trips made across both the Mersey Gateway Bridge and the Silver Jubilee Bridge. They cover April-June 2024, and show:
- Most journeys ever recorded across the River in Halton – over 6.54 million journeys were made over the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee Bridges between April-June 2024, with May the busiest month on record.
- Traffic levels consistently exceeding two million journeys each month – every month since April 2023 has seen over two million journeys made across the river
- Highest number of app payments recorded since its launch – over 156,000 payments were made using the Quick-Pay app in May 2024, with over 93% of customers continuing to choose digital or automated payment methods.
- PCNs remain consistent as a % of overall journeys – over 97.6% of journeys were paid for on time
Mike Bennett, Managing Director of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said: “We’re now consistently seeing over two million crossings using the bridges each month, a trend that is likely to continue as we head into our historically busier summer and autumn period.”
He added: “With journey levels rising steadily each year, it demonstrates the vital role the bridges play in continuing to provide time savings for residents, commuters and visitors in the region.”
Neil Conway, Chief Executive of merseyflow, said: “Use of our digital payment methods is continuing to increase, making it quicker and easier for customers to pay for their crossings on time.
“In particular, over 20,000 Halton residents have signed up for our auto-renewal scheme for their Local User Discount Scheme (LUDS) plans, which simplifies the annual renewal process significantly. We’re urging any qualifying Halton residents who haven’t yet renewed to opt-in for auto-renewal and Direct Debit payments by visiting our website at www.merseyflow.co.uk and logging into their account.”
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.