I am driving up to Edinburgh with wife in February on a Friday night. Earliest I can set off is 3pm. I have done the journey a couple of times in the past and normally favoured the A1, A696, A68 (Jedburgh) route, however these journeys were done in a morning, in daylight and in the summer! Anyone of you know from experience if the traffic on the A1 around Newcastle at rush hour would impact too much on this route or would I be quicker, albeit been further, just going up the A1, across the A66 to the M6 that way? I’ve been told just going straight up the A1 all the way is a no-no, due to traffic and speed cameras. You may say let the train take the strain but on this occasion I can’t as I need the car to get to us the venue and places we are visiting.
Whenever I've done it I went through Coldstream A697. Never had any major probs with traffic/roadworks, but it's about 5 years since I did.
The A1 at Metro Centre/Newcastle is always bad, during rush 'hour' it is very bad which is compounded at the moment by an extra lane being added which means at best it is down to two very narrow lanes occasionally only one! Bear in mind if thinking about A66 the stretch from Leaming to Scotch corner (about 10/12 miles) has a 50 limit on with cameras.
A1/A66 is the way my sat nav has chosen the last twice I've been, last year. I set off around lunchtime though.
The Coldstream road is fine unless you get stuck behind a tracktor or slowish traveling arctic. A1 will always be a nightmare around Newcastle . Personally I'd advise go up Scotch Corner take the A66 to Penrith, M6 on to the M73 then M8 to Edinburgh..
completely off-topic Ian why are voters leaving the Labour Party in droves and moving to the SNP in Scotland?
A19 is far quieter than A1 and can be picked up from Thirsk turn off on A1. Pay a fee through tunnel though. By-passes Newcastle and picks A1 up again at North side.
Always go on the Jedburgh route when I've gone to Edinburgh, or St Andrews/Carnoustie for the golf. Some decent stop off points too.
Only driven past Tannadice, Arabian Ian. We holiday occasionally in Carnoustie, family friends live there. Went to Clubsport in Dundee to get my lad a top notch cricket bat. Brilliant shop. Took a detour past the ground. Didn't appeciate how close the other ground was either, but I won't say anymore. Discovery is a cracking day out.
A mate of mine lives in Montrose and he used to avoid the A1 like the plague and when I queried why he said look the map and if you draw a line up the centre of Britain you realise why it's not the quickest way up to the central belt. Mind you since those days the A1 has been upgraded significantly but it still hugs the coast to get to Edinburgh. Back in those days the M8 as it got to the 'New' towns like Cumbernauld held the tantalising prospect that I might accidently bump in to Dee Hepburn reprising her role in Gregory's Girl!
Without a stop Barnsley to Dundee is 5 hours. But taking this road and the M8 into Edinburgh I'd say you could do it in 4 1/2 hours.
