Almost 24 million journeys were made over the two Mersey crossings in Halton last year, with fewer drivers also receiving fines for not paying tolls.

New figures released by tolls operator Merseyflow show crossings over the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges in 2022 continued their year-on-year upward trend since the Covid pandemic.

The figures include growing journey numbers across the new look Silver Jubilee Bridge, with October and November 2022 being the busiest months for traffic yet since it re-opened in early 2021.

Journey levels are up and fines 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 penalty charge notices (PCNs) continue to fall.

The figures show:

  • Almost 24 million journeys were made across the two bridges during 2022, making it the second busiest 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 – with 980,000 journeys.
  • A record number of journeys were paid for using the Merseyflow Quick-Pay app – which now handles over 100,000 payments every month
  • More than 97.4 per cent 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."

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.”