It looks easy to navigate – yes?
So we are off today Monday 17th March 2025 for a five-day break in the Lancashire area including visits to Manchester, Chester and Liverpool. We are traveling with ‘Just Go Holidays’. We were based in Bolton at the Britannia Hotel. This time I’m not going to write so much by chronology but by themes and the theme for this first day is as indicated above.
The traffic system is grossly overloaded and it doesn’t seem to matter what time of the day you try to drive. Yes, we know about the M6, M 57, M 53, M 58 M 61 M 62 right across to Leeds and Huddersfield.
Those that have not visited the area may not realize that in addition to the motorways there are a large number of connecting roads, many of which are very busy, which link on to the motorways. During our time we were aghast to see the sheer volume of cars, lorries, transport of all sorts so if you need to travel from one motorway to a major A road the queue on the slip road can often be two miles long and can take about 20 to 30 minutes to negotiate.
This is very much an industrial area but in addition to that you have many vast distribution centers for the many big companies right round the country. Unless you have to I really question whether it is a wise thing to come by car. Parking is very difficult in Manchester and not much less expensive in Liverpool. If ou are driving from Liverpool to Manchester you need to face the thought of sitting for at least an hour in a slow moving procession of traffic.
The distance between Liverpool and Manchester is about 32 miles depending on your route but I would allow for an average speed of 15 miles an hour, more so in the rush hour so you may consider it worth traveling by train.
The problem is that the train itself takes the best part of an hour and if you then add to that the cost of getting to your particular destination you may be facing an onward bus journey which will cancel out the small amount of saved time. If you have business in either of these cities then ask the local contact about the best place to park.
Why there is no high speed train between the two cities beats me. It should be noted that the first trains began running between Liverpool and Manchester on September the 15th 1830. It will probably be too costly to make a new straight line between the new cities because that would involve buying up so many properties along the way
I know you can go from London to Manchester in a couple of hours, actually two hours and 6 minutes – what a bizarre contrast. By coach It took us an hour to get from Bolton to the Center of Manchester, one and a half hours to get from Bolton to Liverpool, and a little more than that to get to Chester.
Manchester has an advanced transport system with many tram lines some of which have routes about 20 to 30 miles in length, plus and many buses. This city is also a big hub for ordinary British Rail trains. We never got a chance to try the trams and I believe you can use your freedom pass on them.
Next time I go north I might take Flixbus which is a tenner each way.
In anticipation of you doing a blog on bus travel can I remind you that a person highly regarded by some said, “a man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure”.
I wonder who that was?
Trains have been neglected. If there were a good train system more people would use it.
My wife and I have been to Marseille by train. We had a 5 mile drive to a car park near the train station at about 7am. From there it was train all the way and we arrived in Marseille, in the centre of the city about 2:30. I know it’s only a 90 minute flight but if you add up the time getting to the airport, hanging around there and then add the transfer time to the city centre it would add up to a great deal more time.
As it was our 3 night stay gave us Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday and Monday morning at our destination and home by Monday evening. It would have been only Saturday and Sunday if we’d gone by plane. Add to that the convenience of being able to walk around our double decker train, go to the bar or to the cafe, whilst zooming across France at about 200 mph.
When you visit Liverpool, remember Matthew Arnold, who died there of heart failure in 1888 whilst running to get on a tram to meet his daughter! . . . It trains us or coaches us to steadily travel through life rather than to rush. 😉
Totally agree that our state of mind needs to be as sublime as we can manage. Difficult after the first half hour of sitting – start stop – in a traffic jam.