M1 Northbound Traffic

If you are heading north on the M1 — out of London past Luton, Milton Keynes and Northampton, then on through Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield towards Leeds — this page covers your side of the motorway. Traffic on a motorway is rarely the same in both directions, and neither is the news.

Heading the other way? See M1 southbound traffic »

Check the M1 before you set off

Everything currently reported on the M1, both directions together, is on our latest M1 traffic news page, updated through the day. You can also check M1 roadworks, M1 accidents and M1 closures tonight.

Where the M1 northbound goes

The main interchanges you pass, in the order you meet them northbound:

• J6a — the M25, the London orbital · M25 traffic
• J19 — Catthorpe, for the M6 to Birmingham and the north-west and the A14 to Cambridge · M6 traffic
• J21 — the M69 to Coventry
• J32 — the M18 for Doncaster
• J42 — the M62 between Manchester and Hull
• J43 — the M621 into Leeds city centre
• J48 — the end of the M1, where traffic carries on north on the A1(M) · A1(M) traffic

How busy is the M1?

The Department for Transport counted the M1 at 97 points in 2025. Its busiest point carried 162,446 vehicles a day, and the average across all of them was 98,444 — both directions together.

Traffic count figures on this page are from the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025.