M3 Westbound Traffic (Towards Winchester and Southampton)
If you are heading westbound on the M3 — out of London and the M25, through Bagshot, Camberley and Fleet, past Basingstoke and Winchester to Eastleigh and the M27 — this page covers your side of the motorway. Traffic is rarely the same on both carriageways, and neither is the news.
Heading the other way? See M3 eastbound traffic »
Search all the latest M3 traffic news →
Latest accident or incident on the M3
The most recent accident or incident on the M3 that we are aware of.
M3 Eastbound Jct 2 to Jct 1 carriageway closure
00:462 Sept 2026reported 10 min ago
- Location
- M3 eastbound between J2 and J1
- Direction
- Eastbound
- Lanes closed
- Carriageway closed
- Reason
- Other
- Schedule
- 22:00 Tue 1 Sept → 05:30 Wed 2 Sept
Latest active roadworks on the M3
Roadworks live on the M3 right now.
A303 eastbound crematorium to M3 carriageway closure
00:462 Sept 2026reported 10 min ago
- Location
- M3 eastbound between J8 and J7
- Direction
- Eastbound
- Lanes closed
- Carriageway closed
- Reason
- Roadworks
- Schedule
- 20:54 Tue 1 Sept → 06:00 Wed 2 Sept
+ 1 more active roadworks - search all M3 traffic news →
Latest planned roadworks on the M3
The next planned roadworks scheduled on the M3.
Search all the latest M3 traffic news →
Updated 00:57 Wed 2 Sept
Powered by National Highways’ Transport Data Feeds.
Looking for M3 southbound?
You are in the right place. The M3 runs south-west to north-east, so National Highways signs and reports it as eastbound and westbound, not north and south. If you searched for M3 southbound, the carriageway you want is westbound — because the M3 runs south-west as it heads for the coast.
We use National Highways’ own wording on every news item on this site, because that is what the overhead signs and the official reports say. Being in the right lane matters more than the compass.
How busy is the M3 westbound?
The Department for Transport counts each carriageway separately. These are the 2025 westbound figures for all 15 measured stretches of M3 mainline, busiest first.
| Stretch | Westbound vehicles per day | Lorries |
|---|---|---|
| J13 Chilworth to J14 (M27) | 71,293 | 4,999 |
| J12 Eastleigh to J13 Chilworth | 68,402 | 5,171 |
| J11 Compton to J12 Eastleigh | 65,600 | 4,740 |
| J10 Chilcomb to J11 Compton | 63,364 | 5,435 |
| J3 Lightwater to the Kitsmead Lane flyover | 62,412 | 4,173 |
| J4 Frimley to J3 Lightwater | 61,068 | 3,488 |
| Kitsmead Lane flyover to the M25 (J2) | 60,584 | 3,657 |
| J8 A303 to J7 Basingstoke (est.) | 56,680 | 2,772 |
| J9 Winchester to J10 Chilcomb | 56,437 | 4,960 |
| J6 Basingstoke to J5 Hook | 53,590 | 2,900 |
| J4A Fleet to J4 Frimley | 52,118 | 2,821 |
| J5 Hook to J4A Fleet | 49,021 | 2,756 |
| J7 to J6 Basingstoke (est.) | 47,412 | 2,937 |
| J2 (M25) to J1 Sunbury (est.) | 32,440 | 986 |
| J9 Winchester to J8 A303 | 28,941 | 1,744 |
The busiest westbound stretch is J13 Chilworth to J14 (M27), at 71,293 vehicles a day on that carriageway alone. For both carriageways together see how busy the M3 is junction by junction.
A note on direction: because the M3 runs south-west to north-east, the Department labels some of its count points E/W and others N/S. We have mapped them by junction order, so flows towards the lower junction numbers are shown as eastbound and flows towards Junction 14 as westbound. That is our reading of their data rather than their own label, and we would rather say so than leave it unstated.