A FAULTY link between traffic lights and a control room was partly to blame for the M40/A34 traffic chaos last week.

Last Friday night the fault affecting signals at Junction 9 of the M40 near Bicester caused miles of tailbacks on the motorway, and resulted in traffic queuing miles down the A34 to Abingdon.

The fault with sequencing – the second of its kind in 16 weeks – caused hour-long delays, made worse by a crash and a rush of travellers at the end of schools’ half-term.

The Highways Agency, which was carrying out work at the site, sent engineers to fix the problem, but by 5.30pm it was still ongoing.

An agency spokesman said: “As soon as we became aware of the issues with the traffic lights we tasked our contractors to look into the problem as a matter of urgency. The problem has been identified as a faulty link between traffic signals and the Oxfordshire County Council control room and we continue to work with the council, who control the traffic lights, to find a solution.”

County council cabinet member for transport David Nimmo Smith said council staff would work to find a solution as quickly as possible.

He said: “We recognise this is an important junction and any hold-ups in the movement of traffic can have a very detrimental impact over a wide area.

“But it is in our interests to fix this problem, because when people try to avoid the M40 or A34 they end up using rat-runs through rural areas.”

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