Manchester



Manchester is a city in the North West of England.

North towards Preston, Scotland, West towards Liverpool
Walk on Regent Road (in the west of the city) until you get to Salford. There is a big petrol station with many slip roads, which might look attractive, but the smaller petrol station (on the left side of the road) offers a more convenient spot for drivers to stop, and also allows drivers that don't enter the station to pull over. This is a link to the spot

East towards Leeds, Hull
Take bus 167 from Piccadilly Gardens, Lever Street/Dale Street (Stop E) in central Manchester, and get off at stop: Birch, Heywood Old Road/Langley Lane (journey time approx. 25 minutes). The service is hourly (more info on times from: (http://www.traveline.org.uk/index.htm). You should be able to see the services when approaching the bus stop. When you get off the bus, walk down Whittle Lane (which goes over the motorway M62), and you will be at the services, where you can hitch a ride down the M62 to Leeds or Hull. The bus costs around £2.50. You can get cheap coach tickets from Megabus or National Express funfare (they have websites) where you can get trips from between £3-6 if you book in advance. So I would only take this hitching route if you are on a low budget or traveling last minute.

South Towards Birmingham and Bristol
Catch a bus to Whythenshaw (the 101, 104 or 105 from Piccadilly Gardens in the city centre. Just ask the driver to shout for you at the Wilbraham road junction if you're unsure where to get off)  and get to Princess Parkway, this is the start of the M56. From here you can head to the M6, better if you are heading south since you are a few junctions south then if you was on the M602. here you will see a petrol staton immediatley befor the slip road, I've always had a quick ride from here, mainly for drivers filling their cars up, and a bus stop in front of you for cars to pull over safely.

You don't necessarily need to be on the M56. There are a few good spots on the A5103 (Princess Parkway) so depending on where you start from in Manchester you could head to any one of these. I walked down the Wilbraham Road heading west and turned left (south) onto the A5103. 50m further is a Shell petrol station with fairly good flow. Although some of this will be local traffic, a lot is also continuing onto the M56 and then M6. If you don't want to wait around at the garage itself, there is a good bus stop just before so you could try some road hitching here. It took 10 minutes getting a ride out to the M6.

Both of these descriptions are describing this bus stop. It really is a great place to get south from; I've used it six times and have never had to wait more than 1 hour 15 - but it usually takes much less. One time it only took 90 seconds to get a lift as far as Birmingham.

M56/M6
It's useful to know that if someone isn't actually going on to the M6 but carrying on to Chester or somewhere further west then it can still be good for you. There is a big service station about 1 mile after the junction between the A556 (Chester Road) and the M6. It's called "Knutsford Services". So even if the driver drops you at the junction you could probably stealthily walk the distance or just ask the driver to take you there seeing as it's so close.

isin: North West England trash:Manchester