M6 Traffic on Wednesdays

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

M6 on Wednesdays: Wednesday 21 October 2026

How traffic on the M6 has moved hour by hour, compared with the same day a week earlier (Wednesday 14 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 56 mph across the road, against a usual 57 mph; the same hour last week 56 mph.

08:00 (8am)

Northbound · slowest stretch

J4–J4A 14 mph, against a usual 44 mph.

16:00 (4pm)

Southbound · slowest stretch

J21A–J22 13 mph, against a usual 49 mph.

17:00 (5pm)

Northbound · slowest hour against usual

average 56 mph across the road, against a usual 58 mph; the same hour last week 60 mph.

Across the day

Northbound · stop-start

J5–J6 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 220 minutes (3.67 hours), between 08:00 (8am) and 19:00 (7pm).

Northbound · against last week

about the same as last Wednesday: average 59 mph over 24 hours, against 59 mph in the same hours.

Southbound · stop-start

J6–J7 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 270 minutes (4.5 hours), between 06:00 (6am) and 20:00 (8pm).

Southbound · against last week

about the same as last Wednesday: average 59 mph over 24 hours, against 59 mph in the same hours.

Northbound: average speed by hour

Southbound: average speed by hour

Wednesday 21 October 2026Wednesday 14 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 Wednesday 21 October 2026 and 24 of Wednesday 14 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.