M42 motorway

The **M42** is a motorway in the Midlands of England. It runs northeast from the M5 near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire to near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. It runs south of the West Midlands conurbation, going through Solihull and Birmingham Airport. Here, it crosses the M6 motorway. It then goes past Coleshill and then past Tamworth, before ending. At the end of the motorway, just south of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, it becomes the A42.

The road was first built in the 1970s, and was built to make a motorway between the East and West Midlands. It is now also used as part of a ring road around Birmingham nicknamed the "Birmingham Box". It is made up of parts of the M5, M6, and M42 motorways.

## Junctions

|colspan="6"|**M42 motorway junctions**||||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|mile|km|Southbound exits (A carriageway)|Junction|Northbound exits (B carriageway)|Coordinates||||
|0.0 0.9|0.0 1.4|The NORTH WEST, Birmingham (W, N & C), Stourbridge, <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**(M6)**</span> <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M5(N)**</span> The SOUTH WEST, Worcester <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M5(S)**</span>|M5 J4A|_Start of motorway_|<small></small>||||
|1.4 1.6|2.3 2.6|Bromsgrove <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A38**</span>|J1|_No access (on-slip only)_|<small></small>||||
|5.6 6.0|9.0 9.6|Birmingham (S) <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A441**</span> _Hopwood Park services_|J2 _Services_|Birmingham (S) <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A441**</span> _Hopwood Park services_|<small></small>||||
|8.4|13.5|style=background:skyblue|_Entering Worcestershire_|rowspan=2|J3|Birmingham (S), Redditch, Evesham <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A435**</span>|rowspan=2|<small></small>|
|8.8|14.1|Birmingham (S), Redditch, Evesham <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A435**</span>|style=background:skyblue|_Entering Warwickshire_|||||
|11.7 12.2|18.8 19.7|_End of variable speed limit_|rowspan=2|J3A (TOTSO NB)|_Start of variable speed limit_|rowspan=2|<small></small>||
|||London, Warwick, Stratford <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M40**</span>|London, Warwick, Stratford <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M40**</span>||||||
|||style=background:skyblue|_Entering Warwickshire_||style=background:skyblue|_Entering West Midlands_|<small></small>||
|14.2 14.5|22.8 23.3|Shirley <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A34**</span>|J4|Shirley <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A34**</span>|<small></small>||||
|16.5 16.9|26.6 27.2|Solihull <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A41**</span>|J5|Solihull <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A41**</span>|<small></small>||||
|19.9 20.3|32.1 32.7|Birmingham (E), Birmingham International , Birmingham , N.E.C., Coventry <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A45**</span>|J6|Birmingham (E), Birmingham International , Birmingham , N.E.C. <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A45(W)**</span> Coventry (S & W), N.E.C. <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A45(E)**</span>|<small></small>||||
|22.1 22.6|35.6 36.4|_No access (on-slip only)_|J7|The NORTH WEST, Birmingham (C & N) <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M6(N)**</span>|<small></small>||||
|||style=background:skyblue|_Entering West Midlands_||style=background:skyblue|_Entering Warwickshire_|<small></small>||
|22.7 22.9|36.6 36.8|_No access_|rowspan=2|J7A (TOTSO SB)|London <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**(M1)**</span>, Coventry <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M6**</span>|<small></small>|||
|||London (N & E) <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**(M1)**</span>, Coventry (N & E) <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M6**</span>|_No access (on-slip only)_|<small></small>|||||
|24.5|39.4|Birmingham (Central, E, N & W) <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M6(N)**</span>|J8|_No access (on-slip only)_|<small></small>||||
|||_No access (on slip only)_|rowspan=3|J9|The NORTH WEST, Cannock, Lichfield <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M6 Toll**</span>|<small></small>|||
|rowspan=2|26.7|rowspan=2|42.9|_Start of variable speed limit_|Kingsbury <span style="color:black; background:white">**A4097**</span>, Lichfield <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A446**</span>|rowspan=2|<small></small>||
|The NORTH WEST <span style="color:white; background:#0079C1">**M6 Toll**</span>, Coleshill <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A446**</span>, <span style="color:black; background:white">**A4097**</span>|_End of variable speed limit_||||||||
|32.4|52.2|Nuneaton, Tamworth <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A5**</span>, Lichfield <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**(A38)**</span> _Tamworth services_|J10 _Services_|Nuneaton, Tamworth <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A5**</span> _Tamworth services_|<small></small>||||
|||style=background:skyblue|_Entering Warwickshire_||style=background:skyblue|_Entering Leicestershire_|<small></small>||
|39.7|63.9|_Start of motorway_|rowspan=2|J11|Burton upon Trent, Measham <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A444**</span>|<small></small>|||
|40.0|64.4|Nuneaton <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A444**</span> _Non-motorway traffic_|_End of motorway Road continues as_ <span style="color:#FFD200; background:#00703C">**A42**</span> _towards East Midlands Airport_|<small></small>|||||
|colspan=6|**Notes** *Distances in kilometres and carriageway identifiers are taken from driver location signs/location marker posts. Where a junction goes across several hundred metres and the data is available, both the start and finish values for the junction are shown.||||||||

## Infobox (road)

- **country**: GBR
- **type**: M
- **route**: 42
- **photo**: M42 A45 junction 10y07.JPG
- **photo notes**: Looking south towards junction 6
- **maint**: Highways England
- **length mi**: 40.0
- **direction a**: Southwest
- **terminus a**: Catshill
- **counties**: Worcestershire, Warwickshire, West Midlands (region), West Midlands, Leicestershire
- **destinations**: Bromsgrove
Solihull
Birmingham Airport
Tamworth, Staffordshire, Tamworth
- **direction b**: Northeast
- **terminus b**: Appleby Magna
- **previous type**: M
- **next type**: M
- **previous route**: 40
- **next route**: 45
- **established**: 1976
- **history**: Opened: 1976
Completed: 1989
- **junction**:
M5 motorway

J3a → M40 motorway

J7 → M6 motorway

M6 motorway

M6 motorway

M6 Toll
- **map**: M42 motorway (Great Britain) map.svg