There are rumours this will take the A689 number( the A689 currently ends at jct 44 of the M6), but I would be more convinced by another rumour that it will take A595, which makes more sense as it starts on the A595 and is inside the 5 zone. Also using this number would discourage people from using the old A595 through the city centre.

I think A595 is the logical number, both then will meet the M6 at J44 which is a pivotal junction for east and west traffic.

When the signs were changed on the A7 approaching junction 44 as part of the M6 extension works, they had A686(W) crossed out on them which suggests that it will take that number. I would say that the existing A595, as the main route into Carlisle from west Cumbria, would still be important enough to merit both A road status and a three digit number even after the CNDR opens.

I'm not so sure about the three-digit part. Cambridge, slightly bigger than Carlisle, and like it a city and a county town (and having five letters in common in the correct order ), used to be on the A10, A45, A603 and A604, but is now only on 4-digit A roads.

Personally I would prefer the CNDR to be A595.

If you really want to insist on three digits, the bypassed road could become A596!

Which would then mean the A595 would start at the Thursby by pass. Also the A596 passes through more built up areas than the A595 north of Cockermouth and is classed as a more important road.

I personally would like the A599 to be used as logically speaking its in the extreme Northwest of the 5 zone.

The A499 and A299 (and "Nearly, but not quite-the A699) does this also as they are that the extreme limits of their associated zone.


Unfortunately, the A599 is near Haydock and is only a couple of miles long.


A pointless waste of a number!!!

that just cracked me up!!!

Hi!

I'll be having a chat with Carlisle City and St Helens Metropolitan Councils about this in due course!

Chris Williams

If it does, what will happen to the Penrith - Alston - Haydon Bridge road that currently has that number?

Are you sure it wasn't A689(W)?

The numbering conventions suggest it can't be a 6-road as it ends up in Zone 5. But it would be almost as anomalous to have a 5-road ending up on the A7! Maybe the new road should be a A7xx? - it certainly starts out looking like one!

Alternatively, it could be called A7, with the Southern tip of the current A7 becoming A74. An fact, the whole A595 could become an extension of the A7. And then the M6 as far as Birmingham and the M5 could become an extension of the A74(M).

(And no, that's not a serious suggestion. I'd say the bypass should be the A595, with the bypassed bit of A595 becoming an extension of the B6264.)

It should be A595. Then the old A595 plus the A69 to J43 should become B5306, with the A6 (and a short part of A7) through Carlisle becoming part of the B6264, and the remainder of the A7 between the B6264 and J44 becoming the B7202.

A595 seems to be the most logical number for the CNRD, maybe with the A596 continuing into Carlisle on the old, bypassed A595 after multiplexing with it from Thursby to the start of the CNRD. I quite like the A599 suggestion though, especially as the current A599 is daft, why waste a decent 3-digit number on such a short road?

However, I would not be happy if it was given a 6-zone number, as it is out of zone and seems pointless in this case - I don't mind the A66 extending into the 5-zone as it creates an east-west coast route with a continuous number, but in this case it doesn't seem necessary.

I can see this for the A595, but the start point of the A6, A7 and A69 have always started more or less together in Carlisle.

Its the A689!!!! I drove past yesterday at the Greymoorhill roundabout/ASDA etc....

one other related topic....

Surely the A689 must be unique now????

Its BOTH terminuses now are in the wrong zone. Ends east of the A1 so zone 1 then passes mostly through zone 6 and terminates at the other end at zone 5.

I Know its very common for roads to end in a completely different zone A34, A38, A41 north for example but not for wrong zones AT BOTH ENDS????

Are there any more examples of this phenomenon?????

The A66 does it as well.

I'll take a crowbar to this industrial sized can of worms and suggest that it only definitely goes out of zone after crossing one of a) the B5307, b) the River Eden or c) Hadrian's Wall. Before that, it's in Zone 7, which is allowed according to zoning rules.

Still, A689 makes sense really - it's probably the recommended route from the A69 to the A595, avoiding Carlisle completely.

Really?! I've always thought how strange it was that the main link road between the A19 and A1(M) also pops up to get me between the A69 and M6/A74(M) now it's even more strange as it skirts the north of Carlisle too. Oddness.

edit: the A689 does make sense however, as it's extending an existing route rather than re-routing it, so no signs and maps need to be changed apart from to add the new road.

Are you quite sure about the A603?

Oops, I hadn't noticed - it looks like East Road is still A603 - though Fen Causeway is A1134!

I think this adequately demonstrates that nobody[*] either knows or particularly cares what the numbering of roads in the middle of Cambridge is - or other cities for that matter. For general purposes, Cambridge is on or at the end of the M11, A10, A14, A428 and A1307, and that's impressive enough for us.

(I don't think any of the "inner Cambridge" A roads are signed with a number within the city limits in any case - so the A1134 is only a line on the map.)

Fen Causeway is effectively a multiplex, but the A1134 seems to take priority.

* apart from obsessives like us

So does the A6094 - one end in Zone 1, the other in Zone 7. And both ends of the A41 are in Zone 5. But I can't think of another road which passes through four zones AND has neither end in its home zone.