M1 motorway the A5, the motorway takes a more northerly route through the East Midlands, via Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham to Sheffield, where the M18 splits from the M1 at Junction 32 to head to Doncaster. Originally, the M1 was planned to end at Doncaster but it was decided to make what was going to be the "Leeds and Sheffield Spur" the primary route with the section to the A1(M) south of Doncaster given the separate motorway number M18. From Junction 32, the motorway passes Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Wakefield, reaching the original end of the motorway at (the original) Junction 44 to
M45 motorway M45 motorway The M45 is a motorway in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, England and is long. It runs from junction 17 of the M1 motorway south east of Rugby and ends with a junction with the A45 road southwest of Rugby. It has one of the lowest traffic volumes of the United Kingdom motorway system. Built in 1959 when the M1 (as part of a link from London to Birmingham) went as far as Junction 18, the M45 was designed to dissipate some of the motorway traffic before the M1 terminated. Its equivalent at the southern end of the M1 is