The Mersey Gateway Bridge and the Unpopular Merseyflow System
When it comes to moving around the country, you will sometimes find yourself trying to move from one part to another by using the likes of a bridge or a tunnel. In the vast majority of instances, you will be asked to pay some sort of fee for the privilege of doing so, ostensibly in order to keep up the maintenance of the thing that you are crossing.
A trip through the Mersey Tunnels, for example, will see you required to pay a toll in order to make it out, with the money being owed on the Wirral side of both the Kingsway and the Queensway Tunnels.
@thisisliverpoolcity #merseyside #scousers #scousersoftiktok #england #mersey #scousetiktok #scouser #fyp #british #liverpoolcity #liverpool #tunnel ♬ original sound – thisisliverpool
The Mersey Gateway Bridge, meanwhile, was brought in in 2017 in order to help traffic traverse both the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, spanning both and running between Widnes and Runcorn.
The system that people use to pay for their crossing is called Merseyflow and, it is fair to say, has proven to be less than popular in the years since it was introduced. Whether that is simply because it is asking people to pay money or is due to the fact that it is quite poorly setup and managed is difficult to tell.
The History of the Mersey Gateway
The first road bridge between Runcorn and Widnes was opened in 1961, becoming known as the Silver Jubilee Bridge in 1977, replacing the Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge.
It was designed to carry 8,000 vehicles each day across the River Mersey, but by 2001 as many as 80,000 vehicles were using the bridge and surrounding road network on a daily basis. That was around ten-times as many vehicles as it was designed for, meaning that Halton Borough Council soon felt that a new crossing wasn’t just necessary but was vital.
As four of the eight cooling towers of Fiddler’s Ferry power station come down today, I’ll miss this view from Runcorn Promenade (Mersey Gateway Bridge, opened 2017, in foreground).
— Municipal Dreams (@municipaldreams.bsky.social) 3 December 2023 at 12:14
A Lead Technical Consultant was appointed and worked to come up with the administration of the project, but in 2010 it was put on hold as the country awaited the outcome of the Treasury’s Spending Review.
In the October, George Osbourne confirmed that the £431 million project would get the go-ahead, with £230 million being guaranteed for it as part of the 2014 Budget. The building of the bridge took place in the years that followed and then it finally opened in 2017, having eventually got under way in the May of 2014.
More Than Just a Bridge
The Bridge itself has three single arranged towers that are there to support harp design rigging. The towers stand at different heights, ranging from 125 metres to 80 metres, whilst the total cable-stayed span is 998 metres. The total length of the crossing, including the approach viaducts, stands at 1.4 miles, with the deck being made up of reinforced concrete.
New roads were built in order to connect the Bridge to the local road network, with an interchange and junction both needed to be built for Runcorn’s Central Expressway.
As well as the Bridge, a 70-acre nature reserve was established around both the Bridge and the surrounding river area. It is managed by the Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust, which is an independent charity that looks to promote science, biodiversity and educational opportunities.
The overall project resulted in wider changes being made to the local infrastructure, including the conversion of the Silver Jubilee Bridge into a toll bridge that had better access to the likes of pedestrians and cyclists, reopening in the February of 2021.
The Merseyflow System
The fact that the Mersey Gateway is a toll bridge means that drivers need to pay a fee in order to complete the crossing. Exactly how much needs to be paid depends on the type of vehicle going from one side to another, with drivers needing to pay the fee by the midnight of the day following their crossing.
Unlike at the likes of the Mersey Tunnels, there are no toll booths for people to pay their fee at the point of crossing, which has come under extreme criticism from many.
I am not sure if @merseyflow are an absolute shambles or are just scammers. Got charged a penalty fine (and an admin fee from my lease company) despite having made every effort to pay for a crossing (and loading credit onto the app to cover it). Now trying to block me disputing
— Alisdair Howie (@ahowie72) February 24, 2025
When the Bridge was first opened, protests were staged as locals bemoaned the price of having to move between different areas of Merseyside.
In the Bridge’s first month, in excess of 50,000 people were given Penalty Charge Notices and many claimed that they didn’t know how to pay the toll. One driver was sent 28 PCNs, totally more than £600, but claimed that the Merseyflow system was in breach of both the Consumer Rights Act of 2015 and Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, winning his case.
