Ticket To Ride: M25 Coach Tour Sells Out

• Report rights infringement
• published: 25 Mar 2012
• views: 757

Paying for a tour of Britain's least favourite road may not sound appealing but a Sussex coach company has turned it into a commercial success. More than 100 passengers have booked the circumnavigation of the M25 around London. It offers a chance to be driven through the Dartford Tunnel, visit one of the motorway's three service stations and see such landmarks as the listed Chalfont Viaduct, while whizzing past - hopefully at 70mph. The problem with the M25 is that the traffic does not always travel at that speed and, with contraflows, roadworks and accidents, the journey can take longer than scheduled. And the passengers from Brighton and Worthing spend more than an hour on the coach before they even reach the M25. But despite its grim reputation, Andy Rutherford decided that this was where he would like to spend his 70th birthday along with his wife Margaret. "I've often been around parts of the M25 but I've never been all the way round and I've nearly always had to drive so I haven't been able to see all of it that I'd like to see." Father and son Brian and David Sargeant had also paid £15 despite admitting that the rest of their family thought they were "bloody mad". David said it was on his bucket list of things you have to do: "There's a book that says this is one of the things you have to do before you die. You might not enjoy it but you do it." Driver Graham Maskell admits that it has been a surprise hit. "It was actually put in our brochure tongue in cheek but it seems to have taken off." Most of the 38 passengers were retired, with time on their hands. But students Alice Maples and Sophie Ellianiss had enthusiastically taken the seats at the rear of the bus so they could watch their fellow passengers as well as the road. Miss Maples said: "We're not here to take the mickey. As an experience, we may not be as avidly interested in the M25 as some people." But her friend interrupted to rebuke us for interrupting some of the fascinating facts being relayed by the tour guide Nigel Pullen. Throughout the journey he kept up a running commentary. All 33 junctions have a story to tell and there are new additions all the time, such as another service station being built at Cobham. "One thing I don't want to hear is anybody snoring from the back of the coach. So the more I talk, the more I tell them, the less likely they are to fall asleep." Useful trivia about the M25: :: It is 118 miles long and if you drove round it at the 70mph speed limit it would take you one hour and forty minutes. :: It has 33 junctions and connects nine other motorways :: The longest recorded jam of stationary traffic on the M25 was 22 miles long :: It is not a full circle - at the Dartford Crossing it briefly turns into the A282 :: It is used by a quarter of a million vehicles every day