A426 road

A426 road
Route information
Length:	29 mi (47 km)
Major junctions
North end:	Leicester
	M6 motorway J1 A563 road A4303 road A5 road A428 road A4071 road A423 road
South end:	Southam
Location
Primary destinations:	Lutterworth Rugby
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones

The A426 in Lutterworh

The A426 road is a road in England which runs from the city of Leicester to the market town of Southam in Warwickshire via the towns of Lutterworth and Rugby.

History

Until the M1 motorway was completed in the 1960s this route formed the main route between Rugby and Leicester, now much quieter as all but local traffic uses the motorway. However, the local traffic has expanded as Magna Park, the warehouse capital of the east midlands, has grown in Lutterworth. Broughton Astley, a couple of miles north-west-ish of Dunton Bassett (half way between Blaby and Lutterworth) is also infested with lorries that gum up the traffic flow en route to Magna Park, the M1 motorway or the M6 Motorway. At rush hours the road can become congested and reduced to less than 40 mph, particularly when agricultural tractors-and-trailers crawl along it. The 13 miles from Blaby to Rugby can take 40 minutes between 8.00 am and 9.00.

The A426 crosses the route of the former A45 in Dunchurch, this would have formed one of the main routes between the Midlands and South East. Dunchurch is now bypassed to the South by the M45 motorway, and the A426 no longer meets the A45

Route

The A426 starts on the Leicester Inner Ring Road, heading South through the suburbs of the City, crossing the Outer Ring Road and bypassing the village of Blaby. It crosses over the M1 which it runs parallel to for the next 10 miles (16 km) or so. The road becomes rural in nature until entering the small town of Lutterworth and crossing the A4303 Southern Bypass. A further 2 miles (3.2 km) south and it crosses the A5 Watling Street at a roundabout and eventually the M6 junction 1. It starts a descent into Rugby as a dual carriageway with 5 local access roundabouts. Approaching the Town Centre the road becomes single carriageway again and crosses under the West Coast Main Line. It passes the main Town Centre to the West and heads Southwards out of the town towards Dunchurch. The road passes over the M45 and once again becomes a rural road for its final length to terminate on the A423 Southam bypass.

Former Routes

The A426, compared to other routes is a relatively untouched road, with only a single bypass:

• The road used to travel through the village of Blaby, now bypassed