Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Tue Mar 31, 2015 12:20 pm  

Guys, anyone got experience of how busy the M6 is likely to be on Good Friday? In the past I've found normal Friday evening games a bit of a nightmare to get to, I missed the start of one game last year (might have been Leeds) cos of being stuck stationary on the motorway. I'm 200 miles South, and if Good Friday afternoons are as bad as normal Friday evenings, I'll need to allow around six and a half hours!


For peace of mind, then, I might then be better to consider alternative transport: motorbike if fine, or train if not.

So if any other fans have experience of heading North to Wigan on Good Fridays, I'd like to hear about it. Thanks.




[I did post this in Piespace, but don't know if that gets read a lot, so created a thread. But don't worry, I won't be starting treads every five minutes, and if I do, they will be in English! ]

Re: Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Tue Mar 31, 2015 12:56 pm  

just the usual suspects: the world & his wife will be on their way to Lakes, then there's the un-wholy trinity of M56, East Lancs (major roadworks) & M62 junctions. And are they still digging up the Orrell junction?

I'd set off at dawn (or get the train).

Re: Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Tue Mar 31, 2015 2:56 pm  

Move to the promised land! The lakes traffic gets worse when m61 joins m6 should be ok for 3kick off

Re: Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Tue Mar 31, 2015 5:05 pm  

stpatricks wrote:

Move to the promised land! The lakes traffic gets worse when m61 joins m6 should be ok for 3kick off

true, he should be ok leaving a good 4 hours (30 mins p break). Depends where the 200 miles ends though. If it's the south coast then it can take as long to get up to the M40 via Newbury as a good chunk of the rest of the way on the motorway. Use the M6-toll, avoid Bristol (if you're in the bottom left corner) & if you're in Welshland, it might be quicker by boat. Although if it's the other side, listen to it on the wireless (does the modulated amplitude signal get as far as Norfolk?).

Re: Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:29 pm  

stpatricks wrote:

Move to the promised land!

Tempted!

I'm in Wiltshire, just south of Bath, So my normal route is M4 (or A46), M5, M6. At home I'm about 3/4 hour from the M4 motorway

Things is, the M5 isn't great either, full of 50mph limit and contra-flows. And the M6 is worse. And although I usually reckon that 45-50 mph is a decent average to allow for mostly-motorway journey, past experience has shown that this particular journey can easily take 6 hours rather than four.


Just looked up the train. Plenty of trains, and reasonably convenient, probably quicker than the car, can do it in about 4 and a half hours. But it's (*gulp!) 180 quid return!!
Sod that!

Also if I have my own transport, my options are a lot more open to do what I want for the rest of the holiday weekend. Right now it's looking like bike if fine, or an early start in the car if not.

Thanks for your input, guys.

Re: Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:47 pm  

I would set off well early ( dawn ) get to Wigan and make use of one of the many fine establishments for a late breakfast, quite often do the reverse trip en route to Cornwall but never on a Friday, I would think any time after 10.00am the motorways M5, M6 will be a lottery ,also loads of engineering work going on on the rail network over the Easter period so would give that a wide berth.
Safe journey lets hope we win.

Re: Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:06 pm  

Did it 2 years ago and it wasn't that bad to be honest. Seen it plenty worse on other Friday/Thursday nights. Orrell junction is a bit of a pain at the minute though as someone mentioned earlier.

Re: Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Wed Apr 01, 2015 4:44 pm  

have the gas board really got temporary lights on Orrell Road? That'll make getting off the motorway a bit of a pig. Although looking at http://roadworks.org/, almost every route into Wigin has something going on. This should be fun

have the gas board really got temporary lights on Orrell Road? That'll make getting off the motorway a bit of a pig. Although looking at http://roadworks.org/, almost every route into Wigin has something going on. This should be fun

Re: Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:09 pm  

Wigg'n wrote:

Did it 2 years ago and it wasn't that bad to be honest. Seen it plenty worse on other Friday/Thursday nights. Orrell junction is a bit of a pain at the minute though as someone mentioned earlier.

Why get off at Orrell junction 24 and straight down Warrington Road to the stadium.

Re: Travelling to Wigan up the motorway on Good Fridays : Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:15 pm  

moto748 wrote:

Guys, anyone got experience of how busy the M6 is likely to be on Good Friday? In the past I've found normal Friday evening games a bit of a nightmare to get to, I missed the start of one game last year (might have been Leeds) cos of being stuck stationary on the motorway. I'm 200 miles South, and if Good Friday afternoons are as bad as normal Friday evenings, I'll need to allow around six and a half hours!


For peace of mind, then, I might then be better to consider alternative transport: motorbike if fine, or train if not.

So if any other fans have experience of heading North to Wigan on Good Fridays, I'd like to hear about it. Thanks.




[I did post this in Piespace, but don't know if that gets read a lot, so created a thread. But don't worry, I won't be starting treads every five minutes, and if I do, they will be in English! ]

Just been on ITV news , expect major delays on M6 through Birmingham then northwards on Friday , partly due to disruption on the WestCoast main line , I would set your alarm clock