M1 Traffic on Thursdays

Thursday on the M1 often carries the start of weekend travel as well as the working day, with some drivers setting off north or south a day early.

This page shows the most recent Thursday hour by hour in both directions. If the evening looks slower than the morning, the cards will show which stretch it was and whether there was stop-start traffic.

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M1 on Thursdays: Thursday 15 October 2026

How traffic on the M1 has moved hour by hour, compared with the same day a week earlier (Thursday 8 October 2026) and with National Highways’ usual speed for each hour. Updated every five minutes.

Speeds are colour-coded the same way as our live M1 speed flow map: 50 mph and over, 30 mph to 49 mph, under 30 mph. The colour shows the speed actually achieved; the usual speed is shown in bold beside it.

02:00 (2am)

Southbound · slowest hour against usual

average 56 mph across the road, against a usual 55 mph.

13:00 (1pm)

Northbound · slowest hour against usual

average 61 mph across the road, against a usual 58 mph.

Northbound · slowest stretch

J9–J10 9 mph, against a usual 59 mph.

22:00 (10pm)

Southbound · slowest stretch

J9–J10 10 mph, against a usual 63 mph.

Across the day

Northbound · stop-start

J25–J26 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 100 minutes (1.67 hours), between 20:00 (8pm) and 23:00 (11pm).

Southbound · stop-start

J36–J37 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 125 minutes (2.08 hours), between 00:00 (midnight) and 00:00 (midnight).

Northbound: average speed by hour

Southbound: average speed by hour

Thursday 15 October 2026usual speed (National Highways)

How we worked this out. We regularly take National Highways’ live speed data for each stretch of the M1 and keep the average for each hour. These figures cover 23 hours of Thursday 15 October 2026 (we have no readings for Thursday 8 October 2026, so there is no week-earlier line yet) (hours with no readings are left out). Hours are UK time. A speed shown for the whole road is the average across its stretches, so a short queue may not move it much: the cards point to the slowest stretches.

© 2026 Corporate Ace Limited. The analysis, wording, charts and conclusions on this page are our own, produced from the live information we collect, including National Highways’ data. You may not copy, republish or reproduce them on any website, app, broadcast or publication without our prior written permission, which must set out how and where they will be used. To ask, please contact us. Powered by National Highways’ Transport Data Feeds.

The M1 on Other Days

For the road right now, see the live M1 speed flow map and the latest M1 traffic news, or look up any junction on the M1 junctions page.