M42 Maps and Junctions

The M42 is split here into six sections, each with its own page: what the junctions connect to, the towns they serve, the Department for Transport traffic count for that stretch, and the news affecting it.

The six sections of the M42

• Junctions 1–3: Bromsgrove and Redditch — from the M5 at Junction 4A past Hopwood Park to the A435 for Redditch.
• Junction 3A: the M40 interchange — where the M40 from London joins.
• Junctions 4–5: Shirley and Solihull — the busiest counted stretch of the road.
• Junctions 5A–6: Birmingham Airport and the NEC — including the new Junction 5A.
• Junctions 7–9: the M6, the M6 Toll and Coleshill — a cluster of one-way links.
• Junctions 10–11: Tamworth and the A42 — to the end of the motorway at Appleby Magna.

Every junction on one page

If you want the whole road at a glance, the map of M42 motorway junctions lists every junction in order, what it connects to, and which way you can get on and off.

The counties along the M42

The M42 runs through Worcestershire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands and Leicestershire. Tamworth services, off Junction 10, sits on the border between Staffordshire and Warwickshire. It starts at Catshill near Bromsgrove and ends at Appleby Magna, just south-west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Its main destinations are Bromsgrove, Solihull, Birmingham Airport and Tamworth.

Together with the M5 and the M6, the M42 forms part of the Birmingham Motorway Box. The section from the M40 to Junction 4 of the M6 is also, though unsigned, part of the European route E05.

How the road was built

The first section, linking Birmingham Airport with the M6, opened on 8 November 1976 — three months early. The rest followed in the 1980s: Coleshill to Polesworth in December 1985, the southern section to Alvechurch in September 1985, the A435 to A38 section on 5 June 1986, the Polesworth sections on 7 August 1986, and finally the link from the M5, opened on 19 March 1987. The A42 continuation to the M1 was completed in August 1989. A section through the Lickey Hills was cancelled in December 1981.