How busy is the M6, really? These are the official traffic counts published by the Department for Transport — not estimates and not our opinion. The M6 is measured at 99 separate points along its length, and the figures below are the 2025 averages for an ordinary day.

The Headline

The busiest measured stretch of the M6 runs from Junction 20 to Junction 21 spur, near Lymm and the Thelwall Viaduct, carrying 187,521 vehicles a day.

The heaviest stretch for freight is Junction 8W to Junction 9 at Great Barr, where 31,213 lorries pass every day — 17.3% of all the traffic on it. That is more than any other road in our network, and it is why we have given it a page of its own.

The Twelve Busiest Stretches of the M6

M6 Traffic Statistics: Vehicles a Day, Stretch by Stretch

Stretch	Vehicles per day	Lorries	Lorry share
J20 to J21 spur	187,521	23,492	12.5%
J8W to J9	180,440	31,213	17.3%
J8E to J7	174,714	24,159	13.8%
J30 to J31	171,079	14,168	8.3%
J9 to J10	166,153	27,805	16.7%
J21 spur to J21A	163,344	21,505	13.2%
J31 to J31A	158,691	12,702	8.0%
J6 to J5	147,469	18,447	12.5%
J17 to J18	143,072	21,167	14.8%
J31A to J32	142,912	11,442	8.0%
J24 to J25	141,782	13,511	9.5%
M6 Toll to J3	134,697	21,131	15.7%

© M6Traffic.co.uk · Statistics from the Department for Transport

See the M6 junction by junction »

Traffic News for the Busiest Junctions

We have a page for each of the busiest points on the motorway, with the counts for that stretch and the traffic news that affects it:

• M6 Junction 20 (Lymm / Thelwall)
• M6 Junction 8 to Junction 9 (Ray Hall / Great Barr)
• M6 Junction 6 (Gravelly Hill — Spaghetti Junction)
• M6 Junction 9 to Junction 10 (Bescot / Walsall)
• M6 Junction 30 to Junction 31 (Preston)
• M6 Junction 16 to Junction 17 (Crewe / Sandbach)

What These Numbers Are, and What They Are Not

The figures are Annual Average Daily Flow — the average number of vehicles using a stretch of road on a typical day across the whole year. They tell you how heavily used a road is. They do not tell you what the traffic is doing right now. For that, see our live M6 traffic news.

Traffic count figures on this page are from the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025.