Toll charges on the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges will increase from 1st April 2025 for the first time in over seven years.
Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) rates will also increase alongside the introduction of a new scheme to enable unregistered customers who receive a PCN for the first time to choose to use the fine to open an account with merseyflow and have their PCN cancelled.
Moving forward, the intention is that future toll charge changes will be considered and implemented every three years unless there are exceptional circumstances that make more regular changes required.
New toll charges from 1st April 2025
- Headline toll charges are going up by 20% with prices of monthly passes and discounted journeys for registered customers increasing by similar amounts.
| Toll charges from 1st April 2025 | ||||
| Vehicle plan | Vehicle type | |||
| Class 1 | Class 2 | Class 3 | Class 4 | |
| Sticker-registered | Free | £2.15 | £6.50 | £8.65 |
| Video-registered | Free | £2.30 | £6.85 | £9.10 |
| Unregistered vehicles | Free | £2.40 | £7.20 | £9.60 |
| Monthly pass charges from 1st April 2025 | |||
| Vehicle type | Pass type | Cost | Hours of validity |
| Class 2 vehicles only | Unlimited travel pass | £110 | 24 hours a day |
| Off-peak pass | £75 | 10am – 4pm Monday – Friday
7pm – 7am Monday – Friday 24 hours a day Saturday, Sunday and public holidays |
|
| Both passes last one calendar month from date of issue | |||
- Local User Discount Scheme (LUDS) plan – the cost of an annual LUDS plan is increasing by 20% to £12 per year. However, there will be a discount to £10 for those eligible Halton residents who renew via auto renewal.
Any eligible Halton resident can sign up for auto renewal today by logging into their merseyflow account and making the switch to auto renewal. They can also set up a direct debit to make annual payments easier.
- Penalty Charge Notices – PCN rates will increase from £40 to £50. Anyone who pays within 14 days will be eligible for a discounted PCN rates which will be chargeable at £25. Charge certificates will increase from £60 to £75. There are no changes to enforcement fees, as these are set by a separate piece of government legislation.
There will be a new option for unregistered customers who receive a PCN for the first time after 1st April 2025 and pay within 14 days to use their initial discounted £25 PCN fee to open an account with merseyflow and have their PCN cancelled. This will enable them to have discounted crossings in the future.
- Timetable for proposed future changes to toll charges – future changes to toll charges will be considered once every three years unless there are exceptional circumstances that require more frequent changes.
Full details of the changes being made from 1st April 2025 are available online at www.merseyflow.co.uk/april-2025-changes.
Halton councillors approved the series of scheme changes at a full council meeting on the evening of Monday 10 February.
The increases will:
- be the first in seven and a half years since the Mersey Gateway Bridge opened
- mean toll charges have increased by less than the cumulative RPI inflation rate – which has already reached 40% – since the Mersey Gateway Bridge opened in 2017.
Emails or letters will be sent to all vehicle owners registered with toll operator merseyflow by the end of February 2025 to inform registered customers of the changes.
Financial commitments make a 20% increase in toll charges essential
Halton Borough Council is responsible for funding the Mersey Gateway Project. Had councillors voted not to increase toll charges, the council would have to fund any shortfall in income from its own resources.
In order to fund the project’s financial commitments through until 2044, it was always expected that toll charges would need to increase annually in line with inflation.
However, Halton Borough Council has managed project finances carefully, so it has been able to defer these annual increases over the past seven years to minimise costs to motorists during this time.
If it hadn’t done this, toll charges would now be at £2.80 per crossing based on cumulative inflation over the past seven years. Following the exceptionally high level of inflation* between 2021 and 2023, the project now needs to raise additional revenue to meet the forecast expenditure going forward.
Cllr Stef Nelson, Halton Borough Council’s portfolio holder for Environment and Urban Renewal, said: “This will be the first time that toll charges on the bridges have increased since the Mersey Gateway Bridge first opened back in 2017. We understand that no one wants to see toll charges increased but it is essential that we do so to meet the project’s financial commitments.”
He added: “I would encourage anyone who uses the bridges to register with merseyflow to get discounted crossings and make paying for your crossings as simple as possible. You can register online at www.merseyflow.co.uk.”
*Cumulative inflation – RPI increases since 2017
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Cumulative RPI inflation % increase since 2017 | 3.3% | 5.8% | 7.0% | 12.2% | 26.4% | 37.5% | 41.3% |
| In year inflation % increase annually | 3.3% | 2.4% | 1.1% | 4.9% | 12.6% | 8.9% | 2.7% |
| Class 2 vehicles toll charge once adjusted for cumulative inflation | £2.07 | £2.12 | £2.14 | £2.24 | £2.53 | £2.75 | £2.83 |
| Class 2 vehicles toll charge under proposed approach | £2 | £2 | £2 | £2 | £2 | £2 | £2.40 |