Every time I travel the M11 there seems to be some sort of incident that results in a long and tedious delay; in my experience it is worse than going around the M25, but maybe that's because I'm always expecting delays on the M25 anyway. I drove from west to east and from east to west around the M25 on Thursday and, despite the closure south of the Tunnel, I wasn't held up at all (justa s well I chose the northern semi-circle).
Suffice it to say that ground travel between Southend and Manchester is usually a slow and tedious experience. Whether there's sufficient market for a schedule linking SEN and MAN can only be discovered by giving it a go - it will of course require sustained and clever publicity.