M40 Motorway

The M40 Motorway

The M40 links London with Oxford and Birmingham, and is the main alternative to the M1 and M6 for traffic between the capital and the West Midlands.

Where to Find M40 Traffic News

A dedicated M40 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 M40 and the other motorways and major roads in England on the all-news page on Traffic News England. Choose M40 in the road filter to see only the M40, or search for a junction to find the stretch you will be travelling between.

For news by area, see the South East and West Midlands pages on Traffic News England, which cover the M40 together with the other main roads in those regions.

Information About the M40 Motorway

The M40 motorway is 89 miles (143.2 km) long and runs from London to Birmingham in the West Midlands.

Primary destinations are London, Uxbridge, Beaconsfield, High Wycombe, Oxford, Banbury, Warwick, Royal Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon, Birmingham, Earlswood, Warwickshire.

The M40 joins the M25 and M42.

The M40 was constructed between 1967 and 1990.

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

The M40 in numbers

Traffic on the M40 as counted by the Department for Transport.

about 86,000

vehicles a day

on an average stretch of the M40. The busiest stretch carries about 136,000 a day.

1 in 11

vehicles is a lorry

and about 1 in 6 is a van, so a large share of M40 traffic is people at work.

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

See also: M40 traffic reports · all the motorways we cover.