The UK’s most lucrative bus lane has raked in more than £10 million for a council in 17 months, new data has revealed.
Drivers in Manchester have had pay out £10.2 million in fines from April 2022 to September this year for travelling through bus gates on the city’s Oxford Road, a Freedom of Information Act request found.
The bus gate means parts of the road are only open to buses, black cabs and cyclists from 6:00am to 9:00pm every day, while drivers going through this section face a £60 fine that reduces to £30 if paid within 21 days.
The data was obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), and revealed that 182,707 fines had been handed out since the beginning of 2020 - the equivalent to 130 each day - if taken from January 31, 2020.
In the 17 months up to September 2023 Manchester City Council collected exactly £10,241,545.13 in revenue.
Manchester City Council has said that all of the money gained through the fines was invested into repairs and maintenance work on the city’s road network.
Oxford Road is likely to be the most lucrative in the country, with the AA previously giving the title to a road in Lambeth, south London that raised £2 million between 2018 and 2019.
The section of the road which made the council the most money is between Charles Street and Brancaster Road, where 119,272 fines have been handed out between the start of 2020 and 30 September, the BBC reports.
Motorists have previously complained the signage for these restrictions is not clear enough and in 2018, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal found some signs on some sections of Oxford Road "failed to meet the required standard". The council appealed the ruling and the bus restrictions have remained in place.
The Council lost its challenge to the 2018 judgement and consequently installed upgraded signage and road markings.
A spokesperson for Manchester City Council said:“There are no current plans to change or add to the number of signs already in place to alert motorists to the bus lane.
“The council is content that the signs that are in place are adequate, that they meet the legal requirements and are prominent enough to make the bus lane restrictions clear to motorists.
“The income generated through penalties supports the costs of operating the camera enforcement and processing penalty charge notices. The use of any surplus income that is generated beyond those costs is set out in the legislation which governs bus lane enforcement.
“This essentially ringfences that income for use on environmental improvements, public transport services or highway improvements in Manchester.”
