M6 motorway (Great Britain)
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| Route information | |
Part of  E05 and  E24
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| Maintained by Highways England | |
| Length: | 232.2 mi (373.7 km) |
| History: | Opened in 1958, completed in 2008 |
| Major junctions | |
| South end: | Catthorpe |
 M1 motorway   J2 → M69 motorway   J3a → M6 Toll   J4 → M42 motorway  J4a → M42 motorway  .svg){kind=small} J6 → A38(M) motorway   M5 motorway   J10a → M54 motorway  J11a → M6 Toll   J20 → M56 motorway   J21a → M62 motorway   J26 → M58 motorway   J29 → M65 motorway   J30 → M61 motorway   J32 → M55 motorway  .svg){kind=small} J35 → A601(M) motorway  .svg){kind=small} J45 → A74(M) motorway |
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| North end: | Gretna |
| Location | |
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Primary destinations: |
Rugby Coventry Nuneaton Birmingham Walsall Wolverhampton Cannock Stafford Stoke-on-Trent Newcastle-under-Lyme Crewe Warrington Wigan Preston Lancaster Kendal Penrith Carlisle Gretna |
| Road network | |
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Lancaster, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction (J45). Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74(M) which continues to Glasgow as the M74.
As of 2016, the M6, as well as combining with the length of the A14 from Brampton from junction with A1(M), the A74(M) and M74 to the junction with the M8 in Glasgow, forms the longest non-stop motorway in the United Kingdom and one of the busiest. It incorporated the Preston By-pass, the first length of motorway opened in the UK and forms part of a motorway "Backbone of Britain", running north−south between London and Glasgow via the industrial North of England. It is also part of the east−west route between the Midlands and the east-coast ports. The section from the M1 to the M6 Toll split near Birmingham forms part of the unsigned E-road E 24 and the section from the M6 Toll and the M42 forms part of E 05.
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