UK toll roads and bridges: prices, payment and fines explained

What you need to do first

Before you set off, check whether your route uses a tolled road, bridge or tunnel, and find out how that particular crossing takes payment. This matters because the UK has no single system. The M6 Toll still has toll plazas where you can tap a card, while the Mersey Gateway Bridge and Silver Jubilee Bridge in Halton have no barriers at all and rely on you paying by a deadline. At the Dartford Crossing, GOV.UK states plainly that you cannot pay at the barriers any more.

In short:

• On the M6 Toll, have a card or phone wallet ready, or open an account in advance.
• On the Mersey crossings, pay online, by app, by phone or at a Payzone outlet, in advance or by midnight the day after you cross.
• At Dartford, do not expect to pay on the spot.

Which UK roads and bridges charge a toll

According to the GOV.UK toll road page, the tolled motorway sections are:

• the M6 Toll in the West Midlands
• the Dartford Crossing on the M25, at Dartford, Essex

GOV.UK also lists bridges and tunnels on A roads that charge a toll. Among them are Kingsland Bridge in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and Cartford Bridge on Cartford Lane, Preston, Lancashire. Other tolled crossings covered in this guide are the Mersey Gateway Bridge and Silver Jubilee Bridge in Halton, and the Itchen Bridge in Southampton.

M6 Toll

The M6toll is a route around Birmingham that its operator describes as saving drivers up to 25 minutes at peak times compared with the equivalent journey on the M6. It serves destinations such as Cannock, Walsall, Tamworth, Lichfield, the NEC and Birmingham Airport.

Prices

The M6toll now charges according to where you join and where you leave the road. Its price change notice gives updated prices from 7 July 2026, all inclusive of VAT. The full pricing tables show:

• 1 zone: Class 1 £2.00, Class 2 £4.00, Class 3 £6.00, Class 4 £9.00, Class 5 £9.00
• 2 zones: Class 1 £4.10, Class 2 £8.40, Class 3 £12.30, Class 4 £15.50, Class 5 £16.40
• 3 zones: Class 1 £4.90, Class 2 £10.20, Class 3 £14.50, Class 4 £17.60, Class 5 £18.20

The M6toll notes that prices are reviewed on a quarterly basis, so check again close to your trip. The operator refers to a car as Class 2 in its breeze account offer, and its pricing page has a route tool to calculate the cost of your exact journey. If you think your vehicle has been put in the wrong class, call Customer Services on 0330 660 0790, Monday to Friday 08:30 to 17:00.

Breeze account discounts

According to M6toll, breeze members get exclusive prices with discounts of up to 42%, trips starting from £4 for a Class 2 car, use of account lanes marked with a b symbol, online statements and a self service account. New accounts start on an introductory rate and then move automatically to a standard rate unless you are told otherwise.

How to pay

The M6toll FAQs set out the options:

• Without an account: pay at the payment point in the toll lane at the toll plaza. Debit and credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, smart device payments and fuel cards are accepted. With contactless you can tap and go.
• With an account: the road uses Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) for non stop passage and automatic payment. All account holders, both ANPR and TAG, can use lanes showing the b symbol, alone or with the contactless symbol, at every plaza. TAG holders can ask to upgrade to ANPR on 0330 660 0790.

Because the final price depends on your entry and exit points, the M6toll says it can take its system up to 48 hours to confirm the cost if it needs to double check camera images. To download a receipt you need the date of the journey, your registration number and either the approximate time of travel or the last 4 digits of the card used. If you paid with Apple Pay or Google Pay, the last 4 digits of your virtual card differ from your physical card.

If the barrier does not rise

Press the call for assistance button. Staff may issue a Payment Notice, or you can pay by an alternative method. Payment Notices can be paid online after you leave the road, which can take up to 48 hours while the system verifies where you joined and left. If a notice still cannot be downloaded after 48 hours, call 0330 660 0790.

Mersey Gateway Bridge and Silver Jubilee Bridge

Merseyflow collects the road user charge for both bridges in Halton. The system is run by emovis for Halton Borough Council, the charging authority. According to Halton Borough Council, signs on the approach show that a toll is payable, and major roads have a Last Exit Before sign if you want to avoid the bridges.

Prices from 1 April 2025

Merseyflow raised its charges from 1 April 2025, the first increase in over 7 years, with headline tolls up by 20%. The price table shows:

• Local bus or motorcycle: free
• Car, van or small truck: £2.15, £2.30 or £2.40
• Truck or bus: £6.50, £6.85 or £7.20
• Large truck or bus: £8.65, £9.10 or £9.60

For a car or small van, Merseyflow explains that £2.40 is the full unregistered charge per one way trip, and £2.15 is the discounted sticker rate. A video registered option without a sticker gives a 5% discount on the unregistered charge.

Ways to save

• Pre-pay plan: open to anyone living outside Halton, for business or personal use. You pay £25 in total: a £5 registration fee per vehicle plus a £20 opening balance used for your crossings. Merseyflow says you can save up to 10% per journey. A windscreen sticker arrives by post a few days after registration.
• Monthly pass: for Class 2 vehicles, meaning cars and small vans, an unlimited travel pass costs £110 and covers both bridges 24 hours a day. Merseyflow suggests it may suit you if you make more than 50 one way trips a month.
• Local User Discount Scheme (LUDS): for eligible Halton residents, £12 a year, reduced to £10 with auto renewal and auto payment. Personal trips are then included, subject to a fair usage policy.

A Merseyflow account cannot be used to pay for crossings you have already made.

How to pay

According to the Merseyflow FAQ, you can pay:

• at www.merseyflow.co.uk
• with the Merseyflow Quick Pay App
• by phone on 01928 878 878
• in person at the walk-in centre in Runcorn
• at a Payzone outlet, of which Halton Borough Council says there are 10,000 across the UK

Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards are accepted. Cash is taken at the walk-in centre and at Payzone outlets. Cheques and BACS payments are not accepted. Enter your registration carefully and do not confuse the letters I and O with the numbers 1 and 0.

Penalties and debt recovery

The Merseyflow debt recovery page describes a sliding scale:

• Penalty Charge Notice: starts at £25 plus the original toll.
• After 28 days: if you neither pay nor challenge it, the penalty rises to £75, payable in addition to the toll. You receive a Charge Certificate, lose your statutory right of appeal and must pay within 14 days of its service.
• After 42 days: an unpaid balance is registered as a civil debt with the County Court. An Order of Recovery notice adds £11 in court fees for each outstanding PCN. The debt is still payable to Merseyflow at this stage.
• After a further 21 days: the debt passes to enforcement agents, who send a Notice of Enforcement to the registered keeper. You then pay them, not Merseyflow, and Merseyflow warns the total could run into hundreds of pounds.

Note that Merseyflow’s own pages are not fully consistent: one FAQ answer refers to a PCN of up to £75 for missing the deadline, while the debt recovery page says the penalty starts at £25 and only increases to £75 after 28 days.

If you have missed the midnight deadline but have no PCN yet, Merseyflow asks you to wait for it. Late toll payments cannot be allocated automatically, and you need the PCN reference to pay the toll and penalty in a single transaction.

Dartford Crossing

The Dartford Crossing carries the M25 at Dartford, Essex. The only firm rule GOV.UK gives on its toll road page is that you cannot pay at the Dartford Crossing barriers any more. Check the official payment channel and charges before you travel.

Itchen Bridge, Southampton

According to Southampton City Council, contactless payments are accepted on the Itchen Bridge. Each booth has one card reader that takes both contactless and SmartCities Card payments. Some older SmartCities Cards need replacing, and affected holders have been contacted by email and text.

Severn bridges

In a government announcement made before the bridges moved to public ownership, Highways England said daily tolls would fall after 8 January 2018 once VAT no longer applied: from £6.70 to £5.60 for cars and vehicles up to 9 seats, from £13.40 to £11.20 for goods vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes and small buses, and from £20.00 to £16.70 for heavier goods vehicles and large buses. The government also committed to abolishing the tolls by the end of 2018. Treat these figures as historical and confirm the current position before travelling.

Why some tolls include VAT

HMRC explains that since 1 February 2003, only tolls run entirely by a public authority under a special legal regime are outside the scope of VAT. Tolls run by private operators are taxable, which is why the M6toll states its prices include VAT.

Exceptions

• Motorbikes cross the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges free, without an account. Four-wheeled motorbikes and quad bikes are Class 1 and also exempt.
• Local buses are free on the Mersey crossings.
• Eligible Halton residents on a LUDS plan make personal trips at no extra charge, subject to fair usage.

Checklist before the trip

• Check your route against the GOV.UK list of toll roads, bridges and tunnels.
• M6 Toll: carry a card, phone wallet or fuel card, and update your registration in your account if you have changed vehicle.
• Mersey bridges: set a reminder to pay by midnight the day after crossing, or register for a pre-pay plan or monthly pass.
• Dartford: arrange payment away from the barriers.
• Double check your registration number whenever you pay online or by phone.
• Keep any Payment Notice or PCN reference so you can pay in one go.