M66 Breakdown
Recovery Service

The M66 runs 8 miles from the M60 at Simister Island northward into the Rossendale Valley, serving the town of Bury and the communities of Ramsbottom and Rawtenstall in the Pennine foothills. It is a motorway that serves a single valley — the Irwell Valley — carrying commuters from Bury and Rossendale into the Greater Manchester employment market every morning and returning them every evening.

The southern terminus at Simister Island is one of the most complex interchanges in Greater Manchester, where the M60, M62, and M66 all converge. This junction is notorious among Manchester drivers for its confusing lane markings, multiple motorway-to-motorway movements, and persistent congestion. Navigating Simister Island at peak times requires both nerve and local knowledge, and the number of last-minute lane changes that occur here makes it a hotspot for minor collisions and congestion-related breakdowns.

North of Simister, the M66 enters the Irwell Valley and immediately begins to feel different from the surrounding motorway network. The landscape narrows as the Pennine hills close in on either side, and the motorway follows the course of the River Irwell through a valley that was once lined with cotton mills and bleachworks. Bury, the main town served by the M66, is famous for its market — one of the largest open-air markets in the north-west — and for being the home town of Robert Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police. The East Lancashire Railway, a heritage steam railway, runs parallel to the M66 through much of the valley, and on operating days the sight of a steam locomotive keeping pace with motorway traffic is an incongruous delight.

The M66 has no service stations and the terrain creates specific weather risks. The Irwell Valley is prone to flooding after heavy rain, and low-lying sections of the motorway near the river can experience standing water on the carriageway. The higher sections towards Rawtenstall, where the motorway connects with the A56 dual carriageway to Burnley, are exposed to winter weather that can be significantly worse than conditions at the Manchester end just a few miles south. Ice forms earlier on the elevated northern sections, and the valley can trap fog on still winter mornings.