Lancashire four universities: Lancaster University, the University of Central Lancashire, Edge Hill University and the Lancaster campus of the University of Cumbria. Seven colleges offer higher education courses. The Lancashire economy relies strongly on the M6 motorway which runs from north to south, past Lancaster and Preston. The M55 connects Preston to Blackpool and is 11.5 miles (18.3 km) long. The M65 motorway from Colne, connects Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn to Preston. The M61 from Preston via Chorley and the M66 starting inside the county boundary near Edenfield, provide links between Lancashire and Manchester] and the trans-Pennine M62. The M58 crosses the
A6 road (England) Bolton, Chorley, Preston, Lancaster, Kendal and Penrith before reaching Carlisle. South of Derby, the road is paralleled by the M1 motorway, between Manchester and Preston the M6 and M61 motorways approximate its course, and from Preston to its northern terminus in Carlisle it is paralleled by the M6 only. Between Derby and Manchester the A6 follows a completely different routing to the motorway network, crossing the Peak District rather than going around it. Because of these duplications, the A6 is less important than it was formerly. The A6 begins as St Mary's Road at an elongated roundabout with the A505