Crossings over the River Mersey in Halton reached a new high this summer, with over 6.99 million journeys made by residents, commuters and visitors from July – September 2026.
This is the highest number of crossings recorded since the Mersey Gateway Bridge opened in October 2017. July was the single busiest month ever across the two bridges.
Over 2.3 million vehicles are consistently making the journey over the bridges each month, with a record 95% of drivers choosing to pay for their crossings using automated or digital payment methods.
The newly released quarterly figures from merseyflow include trips made across the Mersey Gateway Bridge and the Silver Jubilee Bridge, both of which are covered by the same merseyflow toll/charging system. They cover July - September 2026 and show:
- MOST JOURNEYS EVER RECORDED ACROSS THE RIVER IN HALTON – over 6.99 million journeys were made over the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee Bridges in July – September 2026. July was the single busiest month ever across the two bridges.
- OVER 84,000 VEHICLES USE THE BRIDGES EVERY WEEKDAY – with over 84% of vehicles using the Mersey Gateway Bridge to cross the river
- MORE CUSTOMERS CHOOSING TO REGISTER WITH MERSEYFLOW AND USE THE AUTO-TOP UP SYSTEM THAN EVER – shown by a record 95% of customers using digital or automated payment methods.
- PCNs STAY CONSISTENT AS A PERCENTAGE OF OVERALL JOURNEYS – 97.7% of journeys were paid for on time
Mike Bennett, Managing Director of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said: “Recording almost seven million journeys between July and September is a significant milestone. With more than 84,000 vehicles using the bridges on an average weekday, these figures demonstrate the vital role the crossings continue to play in providing reliable journeys and time savings for residents, commuters and visitors across the region.”
Neil Conway, Chief Executive Officer, Emovis UK, said: “As the ninth anniversary of the Mersey Gateway Bridge approaches, merseyflow is preparing for its busiest period of Local User Discount Scheme (LUDS) renewals.
“Over 38,000 Halton residents have already signed up to the auto-renew scheme, and merseyflow is encouraging remaining LUDS customers to make the switch online to ensure a simpler process in the future.”
“The automated system eliminates the need for residents to manually submit their documentation every year unless they change vehicle or address.”
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.
Image credit Ian Cank