M3 Junction 9 (A34 & Winchester)
Junction 9 is where the A34 from Newbury and Oxford joins the M3 north of Winchester. It is the most dramatic change in traffic anywhere on the motorway: the M3 carries almost twice as many vehicles south of this junction as it does north of it.
Traffic on the M3 almost doubles at Junction 9
Both of these stretches are physical counts by the Department for Transport, not estimates. These are the 2025 figures.
| Stretch | Length | Vehicles per day | Lorries |
|---|---|---|---|
| North of J9 — J8 down to J9 | 11.0 miles | 56,135 | 3,515 |
| South of J9 — J9 to J10 | 1.4 miles | 110,741 | 10,404 |
© M3Traffic.co.uk · Statistics from the Department for Transport
That is a 97% increase across a single junction — some 54,600 extra vehicles a day arriving from, or leaving for, the A34. Nowhere else on the M3 does the traffic change by anything close to that.
The effect on lorries is even sharper. North of Junction 9 lorries are 6.3% of traffic; south of it they are 9.4%, the highest lorry share on any counted stretch of the M3. The A34 is the main freight route between the Midlands and Southampton Docks, and Junction 9 is where that freight arrives.
It is also why a hold-up on the A34 shows up as M3 congestion, and vice versa. See M3 lorry and freight traffic for the full picture.
Live traffic news at M3 Junction 9
This is the news for Junction 9 only, not the whole M3. For the rest of the motorway see all the latest M3 traffic news, the overhead signs and the speed limits in force now.
Updated 02:57 (2:57am) Sat 17 Oct 2026