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The A19 is a major road in England, running parallel to and east of the A1 road.
The A19 starts at a junction with the A638 just to the north of Doncaster itself; this junction has been improved in recent years. It then winds its way through the suburb of Bentley and out into the countryside to the north of the urban area.
Much of the A19's course round here runs through the old Yorkshire coalfield, and there's evidence of this on the way with old slag-heaps and colliery buildings.
It then sets off north towards the village of Askern, itself with a history of mining in the area. There are some long straights north of here, and the surrounds are mostly flat as the road heads towards the M62.
From here, the village of Eggborough has been bypassed in recent years, with the new road travelling from the roundabout near the power station (there are 3 power stations in a row at this point, running west-east: Ferrybridge, Eggborough, and Drax, with its enormous chimney, to the east). The A19 then meets its previous alignment to the north of the village, before travelling through the small village of Burn. Just before Selby, and at the time of writing (Sep 2003), the town bypass is well underway and a roundabout is being constructed to meet it, which will eventually re-route the A19 to the south of the town. For now, the road heads straight towards the centre of Selby, over a level-crossing and on to a busy traffic-light junction with the A63 from Leeds. The A19 takes the major of the multiplex through the town centre, whilst crossing the old toll bridge and heading on north towards York.
Section 2: Selby - Seaton Burn
The York Northern By-Pass multiplexes with the A19 as the A1237 – this road is poorly engineered and has frequent roundabouts. Heading northward the section between York and Thirsk was not helped much by the opening of the Easingwold Bypass, as the road remained single carriageway. North of Thirsk, the A19 becomes a fast dual carriageway with mostly grade separated interchanges, climbing slightly past Knayton and skirting the western edge of the North York Moors then dropping towards the Cleveland Tontine. Eventually after passing the Crathorne/Yarm exit the road hurtles towards Teesside over the Leven Viaduct. About a couple of miles from the Parkway Turn (A174) the road is raised slightly, overlooking Thornaby Industrial Estate and one of Europe's biggest housing estates known as Ingleby Barwick, giving clues that Teesside is imminent. At the Parkway the lighting columns appear then the road widens to 3 lanes, then at Acklam it becomes four before two peel off for the A66 for Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough. At this point the area is surrounded by retail parks, and masses of industry arranged round the "cloverstack" A66/A19 interchange. This road was improved in the late 90's as it was widened from 2 to 3 & 4 lanes each way between the Parkway and Norton. Even in rush hour the road still flows quite well.
Past Teesside the road climbs to a rural landscape before hitting Peterlee and the surrounding ex-coal-mining villages all competing with place marketing billboards for industries to locate. Of course further up the road at Sunderland Nissan sits beside the A19, just before the Testo's Roundabout. At this point the A19 ended here as the A1 took over to run through the Tyne Tunnel, but the A1 moved to become an accident blackspot by the Angel of the North and the congestion hotspot known as the Western By-pass. To the east the A19 now approaches the Tyne Tunnel, soon to be replicated to offer a real alternative to the A1 during the peak rush. The A19 continues to rejoin the A1 just north of Newcastle.
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