M6 Traffic on Saturdays

How traffic on the M6 moved, hour by hour, on the most recent Saturday. The cards pick out the slowest hour, the slowest stretch and any stop-start traffic in each direction; the charts show every hour against the same Saturday a week earlier and against the speed National Highways normally expects. On a Saturday the page fills in as the day goes on.

M6 on Saturdays: Saturday 17 October 2026

How traffic on the M6 has moved hour by hour, compared with the same day a week earlier (Saturday 10 October 2026) and with National Highways’ usual speed for each hour. Updated every five minutes.

Speeds are colour-coded the same way as our live M6 speed flow map: 50 mph and over, 30 mph to 49 mph, under 30 mph. The colour shows the speed actually achieved; the usual speed is shown in bold beside it.

00:00 (midnight)

Northbound · slowest hour against usual

average 58 mph across the road, against a usual 59 mph; the same hour last week 58 mph.

03:00 (3am)

Southbound · slowest hour against usual

average 56 mph across the road, against a usual 57 mph; the same hour last week 57 mph.

12:00 (midday)

Northbound · slowest stretch

J31–J31A 20 mph, against a usual 62 mph.

13:00 (1pm)

Southbound · slowest stretch

J7–J8 29 mph, against a usual 57 mph.

Across the day

Northbound · stop-start

J8–J9 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 150 minutes (2.5 hours), between 00:00 (midnight) and 17:00 (5pm).

Northbound · against last week

quicker than last Saturday: average 61 mph over 23 hours, against 57 mph in the same hours.

Southbound · stop-start

J6–J7 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 60 minutes (1 hour), between 11:00 (11am) and 14:00 (2pm).

Southbound · against last week

quicker than last Saturday: average 62 mph over 24 hours, against 59 mph in the same hours.

Northbound: average speed by hour

Southbound: average speed by hour

Saturday 17 October 2026Saturday 10 October 2026usual speed (National Highways)

How we worked this out. We regularly take National Highways’ live speed data for each stretch of the M6 and keep the average for each hour. These figures cover 24 hours of Saturday 17 October 2026 and 24 of Saturday 10 October 2026. Hours are UK time. A speed shown for the whole road is the average across its stretches, so a short queue may not move it much: the cards point to the slowest stretches.

© 2026 Corporate Ace Limited. The analysis, wording, charts and conclusions on this page are our own, produced from the live information we collect, including National Highways’ data. You may not copy, republish or reproduce them on any website, app, broadcast or publication without our prior written permission, which must set out how and where they will be used. To ask, please contact us. Powered by National Highways’ Transport Data Feeds.