M1 Southbound Traffic
If you are heading south on the M1 — from Leeds and Sheffield down through Nottingham, Leicester and Northampton, past Milton Keynes and Luton into north London — 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 northbound 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 southbound goes
The main interchanges you pass, in the order you meet them southbound:
- J48 — the A1(M) joining the M1 from the north · A1(M) traffic
- J43 — the M621 into Leeds city centre
- J42 — the M62 between Manchester and Hull
- J32 — the M18 for Doncaster
- J21 — the M69 to Coventry
- J19 — Catthorpe, for the M6 to Birmingham and the north-west and the A14 to Cambridge · M6 traffic
- J6a — the M25, the London orbital · M25 traffic
- J1 — Staples Corner and the North Circular, where the M1 ends in London
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.