Getting Around Manchester by Chauffeur

The M60 encircles Greater Manchester completely, and for cross-city journeys it is almost always quicker than cutting through. Salford Quays and MediaCityUK hang off the M602, which drops you into the western edge of the centre in a few minutes when it is clear. From the south the M56 feeds in from the airport and Cheshire, the M62 arrives from Leeds and Liverpool, and the M61 comes down from Bolton and Preston.

Inside that ring, the A57(M) Mancunian Way is the elevated road that carries traffic across the southern side of the centre. It works well until it does not: a single incident on the Mancunian Way removes the only quick east-west option and pushes everything onto Whitworth Street and the Oxford Road corridor, which is heavily bus-priority and slow at the best of times. When that happens we would usually rather leave earlier than gamble on it clearing.

Metrolink trams run on the street through the heart of Manchester, and where they do, general traffic is often excluded. St Peter's Square, Mosley Street and the approaches around the Town Hall are shaped entirely around the tramway. Market Street and much of the Piccadilly Gardens frontage are pedestrian. Deansgate has been progressively narrowed and restricted at its northern end, which changes how we approach the hotels and restaurants along it.

The Northern Quarter is a different problem again. The streets are narrow, one-way, frequently obstructed by deliveries, and lined with venues whose entrances are unmarked doors. There is rarely anywhere legal to wait outside, so the sensible arrangement is a set-down at an agreed corner and a pickup at a spot chosen for being possible rather than for being closest.

Piccadilly is the main arrival point from London and the busiest place in the city to collect anyone. The station sits above street level with its approach ramp off Fairfield Street, and the forecourt area is dominated by taxis and buses. A private car sitting there is a car in the way, so we agree a collection point slightly off the ramp, tell you exactly where it is before you travel, and hold there rather than circling.

Victoria is quieter, easier to reach and shares its site with the AO Arena, which means it is easy on an ordinary Tuesday and impossible thirty minutes after an arena show ends. Oxford Road station is small, awkwardly placed on a bus corridor and rarely the right choice for a car. If your ticket allows either, we will usually say which one makes for the calmer collection.

Manchester's professional life is not concentrated in one district. Spinningfields holds much of the legal and financial work, the redeveloped area around St Peter's Square and Piccadilly carries a great deal of the office space, and MediaCityUK sits two miles west at Salford Quays with its own gravity. Add the university corridor along Oxford Road and the newer buildings at Circle Square, and a day of four meetings can genuinely involve four different parts of the city.

This is where holding a car for the day earns its place. Papers and coats stay on board, the chauffeur repositions to the next set-down while you are inside, and the twenty minutes normally lost between each appointment simply disappears. Between stops the car waits in a car park rather than on a yellow line, which is why we would rather know the shape of the day in advance than improvise it.

Both grounds change the road network on the day they play. Old Trafford sits on the western side near Trafford Park, and its approaches along the Chester Road corridor tighten hours before kick-off and stay difficult long afterwards. The Etihad Campus in the east now shares its immediate area with a large arena, so on the wrong evening you have football traffic and concert traffic emptying into the same few roads.

The practical answer is rarely to get closer. It is to set down at a sensible walking distance on the side of the ground you will leave from, and to arrange the pickup somewhere the car can actually reach afterwards. Emerging into a stationary queue in a hired car is a worse experience than a five minute walk to a street that is still moving.

Manchester Airport lies south of the city, reached from the M56, and the run from the centre is commonly around twenty to thirty minutes outside the peaks. Add meaningfully to that in the morning rush, on a wet Friday afternoon, or when the M60 is carrying an incident. For an early flight we would rather leave with margin and drink a coffee at the terminal than shave the timing and watch the traffic decide.

The airport has three terminals with separate approaches, so the terminal number matters more here than at some airports. For departures we set down at the terminal itself; for arrivals we prefer to meet inside, which costs a few minutes of parking and saves a great deal of standing about. We check published arrival information before the chauffeur sets off, and adjust the collection accordingly.

Greater Manchester has spent several years working through the design of a clean air scheme, and the arrangements have changed more than once. We keep track of what applies on the day you travel. Where any charge is due on your journey it is included in the written quotation and confirmed at the point of booking, so nothing appears afterwards that you have not already seen.