London to Leeds/Manchester... best route?

londonTiger

I am going up to Leeds/Manchester soon to buy some liquidated stock. Mega bargain and it would cost £200 in freight to get it delivered so I dont mind giving up a saturday to get it myself and save some dosh.

The seller travels between manchester and leeds so he said he can be in either of these places, Im not sure which lcation woul be better for me, both leeds and manchester is 200/210ish miles from me so I would like to pick the quickest route by time. SHould I go m1/m6 or A1. Never travelled A1.

Also what day/time would be best to depart to avoid rush hour. I'm thinking set off to arrive 10AM in either place and then sprint back before schoolrun (weekday)/lunchtime (weekends) to avoid traffic.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Weekdays a 6/7am start should see you into Leeds comfortably for 10am, the return journey should also be OK, if no accidents.

A1 will be OK for both and will avoid the interminable roadworks on the M1, try to get to Doncaster for 9 cos the section between Donny and M62 can be bad at peak times.

I'd rather do the Leeds run from London (assuming you live east side) unless you happen to live more or less on the M40?, in which case Manchester might be preferable.

A1 is now almost roundabout free apart from Black Cat (A421) and a few around Biggleswade/Sandy usually trouble free, since they've put traffic lights on Black Cat it will only hold you up a couple of mins at most.

Do not do the run on a Friday, once lunch time comes all bets are off.

mcpitman

I would go M1/M6 to Manchester, or straight up the M1 to Leeds.

I wouldn't use the A1 due to lorries overtaking each other when there is a 0.000001mph difference.

Yolina

The M1 is a bit of a PITA at the moment with all the seemingly never-ending roadworks all over the place. Haven't been on the A1 for years so can't comment.

wba31

Not sure about M1 but M6 has a big section at 50mph from junction 11a (with M6 toll) to J13 (i think). as someone who lives in walsall and my sat nav tries to take me to Leeds via M6/M62 id rather take the M1 route anyday!

macman

All depends where you are starting from in London. M11 and then A1 is generally trouble free except for the A14 bit around Cambridge in the rush hour. But if you are nearer the M1 it wouldn't make sense.
All the 6 roundabouts have been taken out of the A1 from north of Peterborough and it is much improved.

londonTiger

macman wrote: »

All depends where you are starting from in London. M11 and then A1 is generally trouble free except for the A14 bit around Cambridge in the rush hour. But if you are nearer the M1 it wouldn't make sense.
All the 6 roundabouts have been taken out of the A1 from north of Peterborough and it is much improved.

ok, it can take me about 1.5 hours to get to m1, but I am very close to a12 and I think i can get on m11 in 30 mins. So m11 is the preferred route as I can get on the motorways far quicker.

DKLS

Yolina wrote: »

The M1 is a bit of a PITA at the moment with all the seemingly never-ending roadworks all over the place. Haven't been on the A1 for years so can't comment.

This, loads of 50mph zones on the M1 which makes the trip very tedious, I can understand when the staff are working, but I didn't see one working on my last trip, which made the "My mummy works here" signs grate a little.

londonTiger

just did a round trip today from London to Leeds & Bradford via A1. Took bloody ages at 4 hours each way, but traffic was an absolute breeze, the fact that it was raining all day helped as fewer people decided to get in their cars and go for a day out.

Id hate to think how the trip would be like on a weekday with commercial and commuter traffic.

knightstyle

We are using the A1 every couple of weeks at the moment, join at Newark and leave at M25. Haven't had amy problems for months apart from an accident three weeks ago. Watch out for speed limits though.
If traveling at night take care on the A1 sections as you come from well lit motorway with good cats eyes to unlit road with almost no working cats eyes.