M4 traffic: The ghost motorway slip road that goes nowhere

The M4 has many quirks along its 189 miles that stretch between Wales to London, but one of its most unusual sections is a slip road ^[1] that goes nowhere.

Drivers might have noticed the area, which stands near where the M4 tolls used to stand, but if you happened to follow the route, you would find it only leads to a relic of what went before.

Paying booths were opened when the Prince of Wales Bridge was first launched on June 5, 1996. The second Severn crossing cost £330milllion to build and was designed to relieve traffic on the M48 and make it faster for motorists to travel between Bristol and Newport, reports Wales Online.^[2]

The booths ceased operating in December 2018 when the divisive toll was abolished after more than 50 years. But the operations building is still in place and has a junction dedicated to it, standing as a physical reminder of the toll system. Motorway fanatics from the Auto Shenanigans ^[4] channel pointed out the “leftovers” of the site in a recent video on YouTube.

It also leads to some back roads giving access to farmland, which could’ve been used to send you back over the bridge if you couldn’t pay the toll.

Now, there’s no reason for drivers to use the junction and it stands as the only physical reminder of the toll system. All it leads to is the defunct toll building and some side roads leading to a small amount of private land.

The rest of the road has since been narrowed leaving little other trace of the tolls. However, talks are underway to decide if the tolls could return – although if they come back, it would be in a different form.

In March it was reported that low-emission zones could be created on certain stretches of the M4 and A470 if emissions aren’t lowered enough. Parts of the M4 near Newport could become part of such a scheme.

Climate minister Julie James previously said: “Our ambition is to further improve air quality and soundscapes by bringing forward new measures to reduce the impacts of air and noise pollution on human health, biodiversity and the natural environment.”

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References

^{^} slip road (www.bristolpost.co.uk)
^{^} Wales Online. (www.walesonline.co.uk)
^{^} Airplane passenger angry after being asked to move seat for wheelchair user (www.bristolpost.co.uk)
^{^} Auto Shenanigans (www.youtube.com)