M6 Traffic on Thursdays

How traffic on the M6 moved, hour by hour, on the most recent Thursday. 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 Thursday a week earlier and against the speed National Highways normally expects. On a Thursday the page fills in as the day goes on.

M6 on Thursdays: Thursday 22 October 2026

How traffic on the M6 has moved hour by hour, compared with the same day a week earlier (Thursday 15 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.

07:00 (7am)

Southbound · slowest hour against usual

average 55 mph across the road, against a usual 57 mph; the same hour last week 56 mph.

10:00 (10am)

Northbound · slowest stretch

J26–J27 16 mph, against a usual 61 mph.

12:00 (midday)

Southbound · slowest stretch

J10–J10A 7 mph, against a usual 48 mph.

15:00 (3pm)

Northbound · slowest hour against usual

average 55 mph across the road, against a usual 59 mph; the same hour last week 57 mph.

Across the day

Northbound · stop-start

J4–J4A traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 170 minutes (2.83 hours), between 07:00 (7am) and 00:00 (midnight).

Northbound · against last week

about the same as last Thursday: average 58 mph over 23 hours, against 58 mph in the same hours.

Southbound · stop-start

J10–J10A traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 425 minutes (7.08 hours), between 06:00 (6am) and 19:00 (7pm).

Southbound · against last week

about the same as last Thursday: average 58 mph over 23 hours, against 58 mph in the same hours.

Northbound: average speed by hour

Southbound: average speed by hour

Thursday 22 October 2026Thursday 15 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 Thursday 22 October 2026 and 23 of Thursday 15 October 2026 (hours with no readings are left out). 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.