Motorway Services Online

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How Things Work

'How Things Work' is our creative, catch-all title for our collection of articles which don't form part of the main database. They attempt to provide some background information about different aspects of motorway services, and a little bit about how they work.

Visitors to this section should also look at History, which pays particular attention to closed, unbuilt and the oldest services.

The Basics

Our first section examines the topics which we get asked about a lot. It's by far the best place to start!

Facts and Figures

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Biggest and Busiest

Cobham seems to be the obvious candidate for this one.

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Smallest and Quietest

This is a little more complicated: we've found some really tiny ones that people normally forget about.

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Opening Hours

Find fuel, toilets and some-sort of food on the motorway is easy - for everything else it varies.

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How Many Services Are There?

There are 96 motorway services in the UK - but that's with a few exceptions and explanations.

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How Services Are Located

Why are motorway services always in awkward places? Where are the furthest and closest services? This page has you covered.

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How Services Are Named

What's in a name? Quite a lot of debate and a few controversies.

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Timeline: Oldest and Newest

Find the oldest services, the newest, and everything else in between.


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Drive Thrus

Drive thrus are all over the motorway network - what took them so long?

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Electric Vehicle Charging Points

Information for electric vehicle drivers.


From fine dining to burgers and a few new ideas here and there.

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Hotels and Lodges

There's no such thing as a motel - according to the people who market them, anyway.

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The biggest argument found in a service station is over something so basic. This is our attempt to lay down the rules of parking.

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The little newsagents that became a big supermarket.

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Even we'll admit this isn't the most exciting page on the website, but lots of people ask about service station showers.

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It's the only facility everybody is looking for - so why are the toilets always at the back?

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Traffic Information

Putting traffic alerts on a TV screen doesn't sound revolutionary, but wait until you hear about the first effort.

Information and Guidance

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Government Policy (Regulations)


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How To Design A Service Station

A look at how service station design has evolved, and what the key factors in new service station design are.

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Mobile Apps


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Price Point: Why are services so expensive?


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Professional Drivers


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Road Signs


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Lists and Analysis

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Best and Worst

Across the site we ask you to rate different service stations, and here you can see how they all stack up alongside each other.

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MOT Numbers


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Old Pubs

Many modern A-road services have adopted a building which pre-dates the road network as we would recognise it. This page lists them.

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Rear Access


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Services on TV


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Services which have burnt down
