M25

M25 Traffic on Thursdays

Thursday on the M25 mixes the working day with early weekend journeys to Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, the Channel ports and the Dartford Crossing.

This page shows the most recent Thursday hour by hour. Compare the evening with the Thursday before to see whether weekend travel started early this week.

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M25 on Thursdays: Thursday 15 October 2026

How traffic on the M25 has moved hour by hour, compared with the same day a week earlier (Thursday 8 October 2026) and with National Highways’ usual speed for each hour. Updated every five minutes.

Speeds are colour-coded the same way as our live M25 speed flow map: 50 mph and over, 30 mph to 49 mph, under 30 mph. The colour shows the speed actually achieved; the usual speed is shown in bold beside it.

06:00 (6am)

Anticlockwise · slowest hour against usual

average 48 mph across the road, against a usual 55 mph.

16:00 (4pm)

Clockwise · slowest hour against usual

average 47 mph across the road, against a usual 49 mph.

17:00 (5pm)

Anticlockwise · slowest stretch

J21–J21A 6 mph, against a usual 54 mph.

18:00 (6pm)

Clockwise · slowest stretch

J20–J21 22 mph, against a usual 54 mph.

Across the day

Clockwise · stop-start

J27–J28 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 80 minutes (1.33 hours), between 18:00 (6pm) and 20:00 (8pm).

Anticlockwise · stop-start

J27–J28 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 160 minutes (2.67 hours), between 00:00 (midnight) and 09:00 (9am).

Clockwise: average speed by hour

Anticlockwise: average speed by hour

Thursday 15 October 2026usual speed (National Highways)

How we worked this out. We regularly take National Highways’ live speed data for each stretch of the M25 and keep the average for each hour. These figures cover 23 hours of Thursday 15 October 2026 (we have no readings for Thursday 8 October 2026, so there is no week-earlier line yet) (hours with no readings are left out). Hours are UK time. A speed shown for the whole road is the average across its stretches, so a short queue may not move it much: the cards point to the slowest stretches.

© 2026 Corporate Ace Limited. The analysis, wording, charts and conclusions on this page are our own, produced from the live information we collect, including National Highways’ data. You may not copy, republish or reproduce them on any website, app, broadcast or publication without our prior written permission, which must set out how and where they will be used. To ask, please contact us. Powered by National Highways’ Transport Data Feeds.

The M25 on Other Days

For the road right now, see the live M25 speed flow map and the latest M25 traffic news, or look up any junction on the M25 junctions page.