M42 Motorway

The M42 Motorway

The M42 curves around the south and east of Birmingham, past the NEC and Birmingham Airport, and with the M6 and M5 completes the motorway box around the city.

Where to Find M42 Traffic News

A dedicated M42 website is coming soon, in the same style as our other motorway sites. Until it is live, you can find all the news for the M42 and the other motorways and major roads in England on the all-news page on Traffic News England. Choose M42 in the road filter to see only the M42, or search for a junction to find the stretch you will be travelling between.

For news by area, see the West Midlands and East Midlands pages on Traffic News England, which cover the M42 together with the other main roads in those regions.

Information About the M42 Motorway

The M42 motorway is 55 miles (88.5 km) long running south west north west between Bromsgrove and Appleby in the West Midlands Birmingham area.

Primary destinations are Bromsgrove, Redditch, Solihull, Birmingham and Tamworth and the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre (NEC) at Junction 6.

The M42 joins the M40 at Junction 3a. the M6 and Junctions 7, 7a and Junction 8 and the M6 Toll at Junction 9 .

The M42 was constructed between 1976 and 1989.

The first UK road to be built to motorway standard was the Preston Bypass which later became part of the M6.

The M42 in numbers

Traffic on the M42 as counted by the Department for Transport.

about 74,000

vehicles a day

on an average stretch of the M42. The busiest stretch carries about 137,000 a day.

1 in 9

vehicles is a lorry

and about 1 in 6 is a van, so a large share of M42 traffic is people at work.

Source: Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025. Averages across the whole road; rounded.

See also: M42 traffic reports · all the motorways we cover.