The first-ever planned full closure of a stretch of the M25, Britain’s busiest motorway, this weekend had sparked warnings of traffic chaos. Intrigued to know how south-west London’s infrastructure would cope with the potential chaos, we decided to pay a visit.
On the scene at the M25 diversion: Saturday 16 March
Concorde, the Intercity 125 and the M25 motorway. Three icons of British transportation, but only the latter remains in heavy public use. The plane didn’t last too long beyond the turn of the century, and the train has been relegated to regional use rather than the cross-country routes it was designed to serve. The motorway hasn’t seen a change of use, though - unlike the others, it simply can’t afford to.
Whether you’re heading into the city itself or trying desperately to avoid it, there’s no escaping the M25. London and its surrounding areas have only become more populous since the motorway was completed in 1986, and traffic numbers have only grown with it. The Department for Transport’s latest statistics show that, despite having been designed to carry 88,000 vehicles every day, the M25 carried a whopping 204,000 vehicles every 24-hour cycle in 2022.
As poorly paved, overpopulated and generally soul-crushing as the M25 is, the only thing more nightmarish for drivers is a world where it doesn’t exist. Everyone is thinking the same thing the day before the first-ever full weekend closure of a section of the M25 - between Wisley and Chertsey in Surrey, to allow an old bridge to be demolished and a new gantry to be installed: this is going to be a glimpse into pure, unadulterated motoring hell.
There are no peak traffic times on this section of the M25, known as the South West Quarter - it simply starts around 6am and doesn’t ease up for the next 12 hours. Unusually for a motorway, 78% of motorists on the SWQ are coming from or travelling to somewhere relatively nearby. Public transport on the routes that these journeys would normally take is borderline non-existent, and there are simply no other major roads to take the pressure off the motorway.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Can't believe this closure was this important that it merited a special report on whether a catastrophe on a biblical scale( any worse than Carmaggedon?) was going to happen, it's a necessary closure to improve, replace a section of aging busy Highway!
That's because the traffic was coming off at junction 11 and blocking the 317 into Weybridge. Happens everytime there's trouble between 11 and 10, "just following the sat nav gov’." So in a month's time don your bicycle clips and come this way. You won't have to go far from the station, the blockage goes right past it.