Botley Road reopens on 20 September after three and a half years, and traffic filters replace the £5 congestion charge eight days later. What changes, and when.

Most Oxford roadworks are the ordinary kind, a week of lights and then they are gone. Two dates this autumn are not, and they are eight days apart. Botley Road reopens on Sunday 20 September 2026. The traffic filter trial starts on Monday 28 September 2026, and the second depends on the first.

This page covers the schemes that will actually change your journey, the current Oxford roadworks worth planning around, and the parking and park and ride prices that do not change week to week. Everything below was checked against the responsible authority’s own page on 10 August 2026.

Botley Road: reopening 20 September

Network Rail closed Botley Road at the railway bridge in April 2023 so it could demolish and replace the bridge, lower the road to fix the long-standing lorry strikes, improve the drainage that caused the flooding, and put in proper pedestrian and cycle routes. It is part of a £161m expansion of Oxford station.

The bridge itself was replaced during an eight-day line closure between 1 and 8 February 2026, and trains started running again on 9 February. The road was then due back at the end of August.

It slipped. In July, Network Rail confirmed the road will reopen to traffic on Sunday 20 September, after three minor gas leaks were found during drainage excavation and SGN’s work to replace a section of the gas main beneath the road was folded into the programme.

One caution if you are checking dates elsewhere: Oxfordshire County Council’s own Botley Road project page still says August 2026. Network Rail’s page is the one being updated.

Traffic filters: starting 28 September

From Monday 28 September, the temporary congestion charge is replaced by a traffic filter trial at the same six locations. The county council has made the start date conditional on Botley Road reopening on 20 September.

The single most important change: you can no longer pay £5 to drive through. Under the congestion charge that option existed. Under the filters it does not.

What stays the same:

  • The six locations and their hours are unchanged.
  • Only cars are affected. Vans, lorries, minibuses, coaches and motorcycles can use any route at any time without a permit.
  • Enforcement is by ANPR camera. There are no physical barriers and no gates.
  • Permits carry over. More than 126,000 congestion charge permits had been issued by 24 July 2026 and almost all transfer automatically. Day pass allowances reset to 100 a year for Oxford residents and 25 a year for Oxfordshire residents.
When each Oxford traffic filter operates Timeline showing the operating hours of Oxford's six traffic filters from 28 September 2026. Hythe Bridge Street, St Cross Road, St Clement's Street and Thames Street operate 7am to 7pm every day. Marston Ferry Road and Hollow Way operate 7am to 9am and 3pm to 6pm, Monday to Saturday only. When each Oxford traffic filter bites, from 28 September 2026 Cars without a permit are fined at these times. Vans, lorries, buses, coaches and motorcycles are never affected. Source: Oxfordshire County Council, About the traffic filters. 00:00 03:00 06:00 09:00 12:00 15:00 18:00 21:00 24:00 07:00 to 19:00 Hythe Bridge Street Every day 07:00 to 19:00 St Cross Road Every day 07:00 to 19:00 St Clement's Street Every day 07:00 to 19:00 Thames Street Every day 07:00-09:00 and 15:00-18:00 Marston Ferry Road Monday to Saturday 07:00-09:00 and 15:00-18:00 Hollow Way Monday to Saturday Outside these hours any car may pass. A car without a permit that passes during them is fined £70, halved to £35 if paid within 21 days. For the first six months a first breach gets a warning letter instead of a fine. Oxford residents get 100 day passes a year. Graphic by The Oxford Post.
Four of the six filters run every day. The two outer ones only bite at rush hour, and not on Sundays.

If you get it wrong, the fine is £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 21 days. For the first six months of the trial, the first time a car goes through without a permit the council will send a warning notice rather than a penalty.

The trial runs under an experimental traffic regulation order, so it can last a maximum of 18 months. A six-month public consultation opens on 28 September, and the council says monitoring data will be published monthly.

The council’s own position on Botley Road is that it should not be significantly busier than before it closed, partly because the Thames Street and Hythe Bridge Street filters remove many of the car journeys that would otherwise use it.

The Zero Emission Zone, which is a separate thing

People conflate the two. The Zero Emission Zone is a small pilot covering a handful of city centre streets, it applies to all vehicles rather than just cars, and it charges by emissions rather than by permit.

Charges apply 7am to 7pm, seven days a week, all year, and cover the whole day however many times you enter:

Oxford Zero Emission Zone daily charges
Vehicle bandEmissionsDaily charge
Zero emission0 g/km CO2£0
Ultra-low emissionUnder 75 g/km CO2£2
Low emissionEuro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel£4
Everything elseMeets none of the above£10

A vehicle parked inside the zone that does not move is not charged.

Park and ride, and the £3 ticket that starts on 17 August

Oxford has five park and ride sites on the ring road: Pear Tree and Oxford Parkway to the north, Thornhill to the east, Redbridge to the south and Seacourt to the west on Botley Road.

Parking charges are the same at all of them:

  • Up to 1 hour: free, though you must still register the session.
  • 1 to 16 hours: £2.50.
  • 16 to 24 hours: £4.50.
  • 2 days: £8.50. 3 days: £12.50, which is also the maximum stay.
  • 28 days: £45, RingGo only.
  • Blue Badge holders park free in any bay.

The bus offer changes this month. Free day return bus travel from the park and ride sites ends on 16 August 2026. From 17 August a discounted Park + Bus ticket costs £3 and covers parking for one car for up to 16 hours plus day return bus travel for up to five people. For a family that is still the cheapest way into the centre by a distance.

Pear Tree, the largest, has 1,035 spaces at OX2 8JZ, 18 disabled bays and a 2.3 metre height limit.

Currently live: the A34 at Lodge Hill

South of the city, the A34 Lodge Hill Interchange is being rebuilt to add south-facing slip roads. Two things are happening right now, per Oxfordshire County Council:

  • The southbound off slip reopens on Tuesday 11 August.
  • The A4183 Oxford Road has a southbound lane closure from 10 August to 16 September 2026, with two sets of two-way temporary lights running 24 hours a day, manned during the day. The southbound bus stop moves about 120 metres south.

National Highways is also running overnight maintenance on the A34 between the Peartree and Marcham interchanges. Check one.network for the current night’s closures before you travel late.

The routes that carry Oxford between roadworks

These do not change, and they are what most journeys actually depend on:

  • North to south the city has essentially two through routes, the Banbury Road and Woodstock Road corridor into St Giles, and the A4144 Abingdon Road over Folly Bridge. When one is blocked the other absorbs it, badly.
  • East to west you have Botley Road, the High Street and the Headington radial. The A40 and A34 ring road is almost always faster than crossing the middle, even when it looks longer.
  • The Headington roads carry the John Radcliffe, the Churchill and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, so hospital traffic peaks earlier than commuter traffic and holds up longer.
  • Oxford station is on the far side of the Botley Road works and has been reached from Frideswide Square throughout.

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