Driving Portlaoise to Belfast

JackieChan

Guys,
I'm driving from Portlaoise to Belfast on Friday evening. How much of a delay am I looking at between the N7/M50 interchange and the Westlink toll bridge(hitting the bridge sometime between 4pm and 7pm)
Does anybody know approx driving time from Portlaoise-Belfast. I see the AA have it at just over 3 hrs, this sounds a bit optimistic, imho

Rovi

It's about a 3 hour trip in the dead of night, after that you're in the lap of the gods.
You'll be running against the Friday Exodus, so you'll get to Newlands Cross/the Mad Cow Roundabout nicely under an hour (depending what's going on that day with all the road works on the dual carriageway).
You're going to be hitting the M50 and the toll bridge at about the worst possible time, and that's where all calculations become guesses.
You could get lucky and breeze through (relatively!), or you could get the feeling you'll be spending the rest of your life there.
Once you get out past the airport, it's a handy 2 hours.

.

Bluetonic

JackieChan wrote:

Guys,
I'm driving from Portlaoise to Belfast on Friday evening. How much of a delay am I looking at between the N7/M50 interchange and the Wetlink toll bridge(hitting the bridge sometime between 4pm and 7pm)
Does anybody know approx driving time from Portlaoise-Belfast. I see the AA have it at just over 3 hrs, this sounds a bit optimistic, imho

Would you not try Portlaoise, Tullamore, Kinegad, Navan, Ardee, Dundalk, Belfast?

I'd say the little bit extra driving would more than compensate for sitting in traffic. At least you'll be moving all the time and the roads aren't too bad.

JackieChan

Cheers for the feedback guys.

I'm considering Bluetonic's route.
Does anybody do Portlaoise-Belfast know whether this is a more sensible route given the day and time?

RustySpoon

I travel up there (well about 20 miles from Belfast) every month from Portlaoise and depending on times and days travel either the dublin route or the mullingar route.
Mullingar route will take you 3 1/2 hours, it is a good drive but with lots of winding roads. If your caught behind a truck it is very frustrating.

The dublin route is great cuts the drive down to 3 hours with all the new motorways, just put the music on loud and enjoy the drive. However i would recommend giving the city a miss unless you can get through the Toll before 4pm.

JackieChan

thanks for the info. Can you give me your route via Mullingar. It seems a bit different to the one shown earlier

Cheers

Victor

Via Mullingar means an extra hour of road time, saves about €3.40 in tolls, but extra wear and tear on both the car and your. Instead of 60% of your journey being on Motorways, its 5%.

Overall I think the motorway is safer and better, you are unlikely to loose an hour on the tolls. And if you want stop in Drogheda for a break and avoid the toll.

http://www.viamichelin.com/

Via Mullingar

Departure Portlaoise
Destination Belfast
Via Mullingar
Date 01/09/2005
Time: 04h12 including 00h08 on motorways
Distance: 260 km including 13 km on motorways
Toll costs: 0 EUR
Petrol costs: 17.15 EUR
Total costs: 17.15 EUR

Not Via Mullingar

Departure Portlaoise
Destination Belfast
Date 01/09/2005
Time: 03h06 including 01h35 on motorways
Distance: 253 km including 152 km on motorways
Toll costs: 3.4 EUR
Petrol costs: 16.72 EUR
Total costs: 20.12 EUR

JackieChan

Thanks Victor.
I don't mind the tolls but I don't want to be sitting on M50 for 40 mins between N7 junction and toll bridge.
Once through westlink does the traffic ease?

Edit: viamichelin is a great site.

Andrew Duffy

I don't think you can avoid the tolls by stopping in Drogheda - there are toll booths on the slips to prevent this. If you stop for less than three hours you don't hve to pay the tolls twice, though.

enterprise

Andrew Duffy wrote:

If you stop for less than three hours you don't hve to pay the tolls twice, though.

How does that work?

Rovi

enterprise wrote:

How does that work?

Here's the NRA's glossy leaflet- http://www.nra.ie/News/DownloadableDocumentation/d849.PDF (Acrobat PDF file- 523KB)

A little snippet from it-

NRA wrote:

If you are travelling between Belfast and Dublin and leave the motorway for a stopover in Drogheda you also only
pay once if you continue your journey in the same direction within 3 hours. Request your free re-entry card from a cashier.
Follow the signs carefully so that you pass through the Plaza with minimum delay.

.

strassenwolf

Andrew Duffy wrote:

I don't think you can avoid the tolls by stopping in Drogheda - there are toll booths on the slips to prevent this. If you stop for less than three hours you don't hve to pay the tolls twice, though.

There are three main interchanges for traffic to/from Drogheda. The first is the "Drogheda South" interchange (it probably has a more official name) for traffic to/from Julianstown and Drogheda - this one is south of the toll plaza. The next one is the Donore Road interchange - I'm pretty sure this is north of the main toll plaza but south of the river Boyne. There are toll booths on the slip roads at this interchange. The third one is the Mell interchange which is north of the river. You can get on the motorway here and head north without paying a toll. (I suppose the toll is really for crossing the bridge).

I'd imagine what Victor meant was that Jackie should get off the motorway at the Drogheda South interchange, head into Drogheda and have a cup of tea and a snooze, then drive through Drogheda to the Mell interchange and head north.

Bogger77

Route 1:
Portlaoise-N80-Tullamore-N52-Kilbeggan-N52-Mullingar-N52-Kells-N52-Ardee-N2-Carrickmacross-through town-Crossmaglen-Newy-A1-M1-Belfast.
Dundalk can be a nightmare so this is avoiding it.
Route 2:
Portlaoise-N80-Tullamore-N52-Kilbeggan-N6-Kinneagad-N6-Clonard-Just after you enter the 80KPH zone, take First Right (road is gap between two house)-Longwood-Trim-Navan-N51-Slane-N51-Edge of Drogheda (Mell)-Onto M1(north) No Tolls-N1-Dundalk-N1-A1-Newry.

Route 1 is what I took last thursday from Tullamore, Note Ardee was in bits traffic wise, took ages to get through. Route two would be my return route at non busy times of the day/night.
Use the AAroadwatch routing, using via's to work out distances, times will be off cos it's friday traffic.

JackieChan

As I'm going with the wife and kids I think I'll take the statistically safer route and use the N7/M50/M1 combination.

strassenwolf

I know it's probably difficult with the kids and their sleeping patterns, etc., but try and time your return from Belfast so that you are crossing the bridge at Drogheda at dusk or after dark when the bridge is lit up. It really is a treat.

JackieChan

Well I decided to stick to the m-way. The M50 was a breeze. It was a little slow at the N4 turn off but there were only about 4-5 cars ahead of me at the toll. The major hassle was at Dundalk. It must have taken us 40 mins to crawl out of the town,pass the racecourse and beyond the roundabouts.
This was between 7:45 and 8:30 pm.
When the western bypass opens it will be great. Saying that the jounrey up north must have been a right bitch up until very recently. Having to pass through so many towns must have been very torturous.

Victor

strassenwolf wrote:

I'd imagine what Victor meant was that Jackie should get off the motorway at the Drogheda South interchange, head into Drogheda and have a cup of tea and a snooze, then drive through Drogheda to the Mell interchange and head north.

Indeed, but he should really wake up before he drives through Drogheda.