toll

The Mersey Tunnels

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The George's Dock building which houses the ventilation shaft for the Queensway Tunnel, one of the two Mersey road tunnels

Why yes, I am stretching out a single day trip to Liverpool and Wirral into four blog posts. The first was our trip to Eureka Science + Discovery in Wirral, the second about the Mersey ferries, the third about the Museum of Liverpool, and now this, about the tunnels that run under the River Mersey between Liverpool and Wirral.

There are three tunnels under the River Mersey; the oldest is the railway tunnel, which is now part of the Wirral Line of Merseyrail. The Queensway Tunnel opened in the 1930s, and is the oldest road tunnel, with the Kingsway Tunnel opening in the 1970s to relieve congestion. As it happened, Google Maps directed me through the Queensway Tunnel on the way there, and Kingsway Tunnel on the way back. And I got to experience the Mersey Railway tunnel back in 2010, so I’ve now been through all three.

Both road tunnels charge a toll – it’s about £2 for cars, but check the Mersey Tunnels web site for current prices. The toll plazas are on the Wirral side; unlike the newer Mersey Gateway Crossing further upstream, you have to pay to enter or leave the tunnels and can’t pay later online. Thankfully, card payments are accepted as well as cash.

The two tunnels differ in design. Both have two lanes of traffic easy way, but the newer Kingsway Tunnel has two separate bores rather than one single wide bore. The Kingsway Tunnel is also the only one open to heavy goods vehicles; the Queensway Tunnel has a 3.5 tonne weight limit, and buses must use the offside lane due to the lower ceiling. They’re also different lengths; the Queensway Tunnel is about 1 km longer than the Kingsway Tunnel, even though the Kingsway Tunnel is further downstream.

Another interesting fact is that the tunnels have their own police force; indeed, there are four police forces active in Liverpool. As well as the Mersey Tunnels Police and Merseyside Police, Liverpool Cathedral and the Port of Liverpool also have their own police forces. That’ll make a good pub quiz question.

The tunnels need ventilation shafts, and many of these are now landmarks alongside the River Mersey; indeed, the Georges Dock shaft in Liverpool is now grade II listed.

If you don’t want to pay the tolls, then expect to make a much longer journey. The next two crossings upstream, the Silver Jubilee Bridge and Mersey Gateway Crossing, also charge tolls (and the prices are similar), so the first ‘free’ bridge over the River Mersey that you can drive across is in Warrington. When I was planning my journey, a route avoiding the tolls took me down the M6, across on the M56 and up into Wirral on the M53, adding around 7 minutes and 32 km (20 miles) onto my journey. The extra fuel burnt would probably have equated to the toll.

European motorway toll tag

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An AI-generated image of a car passing through a motorway toll plaza

Today’s the first of a couple of blog posts about things that I’ve done to make our holidays a little easier. This blog post is about Emovis Tag, who sell a small electronic tag to pay for motorway toll plazas in France, Spain and Portugal.

Normally, we go to France on our summer holiday, and take our car with us. Unlike British motorways (with one exception), French motorways are usually privately owned and financed, and so most charge a toll for use. Since 2018, we’ve used a tag from Emovis Tag, which lets you drive through motorway toll plazas without having to stop and pay. Instead, your motorway toll charges are accumulated, and then taken from your UK bank account by direct debit each month.

A photo of a Liber-T tag in the windscreen of my car

For France, you get a standard ‘Liber-T’ tag, and there’s a separate tag that works for motorways in Spain and Portugal. That means that if you’re driving through France and either Spain, Portugal or both, you’ll need two tags. Emovis Tag will send you your tag(s) by post, and you fit them to the dotted area of your windscreen.

Then, once you’re in France, and come across a motorway toll plaza, you ensure that you’re in a lane with the ‘Liber-T’ icon (a lower-case ‘t’) and drive through at a walking pace. The tag should beep loudly at you, and the barrier in front should open to let you through. There’s usually no need to come to a complete stop.

Some motorway toll plazas have longer lanes where you can approach at 30 km/h (about 20mph) and so you don’t have to slow down as much.

Advantages

The key advantage of having one of these tags is that you don’t need to come to a complete stop, either to collect a ticket or pay a motorway toll charge. Whilst this may only save a few seconds, it adds up if you have a long journey.

It also overcomes an issue with British right-hand drive cars; most machines and booths at the motorway toll plazas are designed for left-hand drive vehicles. If you don’t have a front-seat passenger in the car, or they’re like my wife and have a tendency to sleep in cars, then you don’t need to reach over to pay. There’s also no risk of losing the paper ticket given to you when you join the motorway, so you won’t be overcharged if you do lose it. And you don’t have to worry about not having the correct change or having a foreign currency card declined.

Disadvantages

However, a key point to note is that this isn’t in any way cheaper. You have to pay for the tag, and there are annual and monthly account fees to pay (although the monthly fees are capped). There is a deposit for the tag which you can get back if you return it, which is worth considering if you don’t go abroad at least once a year. We’re staying in Britain for our holiday this year, and probably next year too, so I’m debating whether it’s worth returning the tag.

Therefore, you are paying more for an easier experience whilst on holiday. I think it’s worth it, but it’s up to you.

Something else to bear in mind is that, whilst the majority of French motorways have tolls, not all of them do. If you’re visiting Brittany and Normandy, then the main A84 autoroute is free throughout. On our 2022 France holiday, we didn’t encounter any toll-charging roads.

If you do decide to go ahead, you can sign up using this link to get a €5 credit on your account.