Bridges had busiest winter since Gateway opened in 2017
HALTON’S two major bridges saw their busiest winter period since the Mersey Gateway opened in 2017, bosses have confirmed.
New figures released by tolls company Merseyflow show there were six million crossings from JanuaryMarch this year. March was the busiest month for the Mersey Gateway Bridge in over three years, with almost two million journeys being made by residents, commuters, and visitors.
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.
The figures also show that the number of penalty charge notices (PCNs) issued to people for not paying their tolls dropped from 2.37 per cent of total journeys in January-March 2022, to 2.31 per cent this year.
More than 122,000
transactions were also made by drivers using the Merseyflow QuickPay App in March, with the firm stating that the app now regularly handles more than 100,000 transactions each month.
Neil Conway, Chief Executive of Merseyflow, said: “Recording over 122,000 payments on the Merseyflow QuickPay App in March alone shows customers are making use of the autopay systems we have available.
“As a whole, the number of customers paying for their journeys on time is on the rise and we’re confident that improvements we’re continuing to make to our customer service facilities over the coming year will help to reduce the number of PCNs issued even further.”
Mike Bennett, Managing Director of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said the usage figures were all the more impressive due to the fact the Silver Jubilee has been closed during weekdays as a new LED lighting system is installed.
He added: “While the Silver Jubilee Bridge is closed from 8am-5pm on weekdays over the coming months, the spring period as a whole is a reassuring benchmark that shows people can still rely on the time savings the bridges continue to provide.”