May 10th - M25 shutdown: a test of traveler patience
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2024
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
I explore the weekend closure of the M25 and its impact on travellers between Heathrow and Gatwick Airports. From Central London, I delve into the reasons behind the closure, the detours, and how to navigate the changes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder and you will find out soon enough where I am, but I want to talk to you about the M25 because that is going to be closing again in the southwestern quadrant again for the weekend. |
| 0:24.6 | It's a 10-mile stretch of London's orbital motorway. It's going to be closing 9pm Friday, |
| 0:29.9 | reopened 6am on Monday. That's the plan. Anyway, last time they do it, and they've only done it once before, |
| 0:36.8 | the thing actually opened eight hours early. Anyway, this time they do it, and they've only done it once before, the thing actually opened |
| 0:38.2 | eight hours early. |
| 0:40.2 | Anyway, this is all happening because National Highways says it's necessary for the installation |
| 0:45.2 | of a bridge and gantry, all part of a third of a billion pound project to improve junction |
| 0:51.7 | 10. |
| 0:52.4 | All that money on one junction, yes, but it is the busiest on |
| 0:56.6 | the whole motorway, 300,000 motorists per day. It's the one which connects the M25 running |
| 1:04.0 | around London with the A3 trunk road between London and Portsmouth. National Highway says it's going to be a larger roundabout. |
| 1:13.6 | Extra lanes, free phone left turns at all four corners of the junction. If you're wondering |
| 1:18.8 | what that means, you will be familiar probably with some junctions where there's a sort of little |
| 1:24.5 | slip road where you can actually nip off if you're turning left |
| 1:28.1 | and you don't need to slow down or anything and you just make your way around there. |
| 1:33.2 | And they're also promising new and safer roads routes for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders. |
| 1:38.8 | I wouldn't want to ride a horse or a bike around that junction anyway. |
| 1:46.0 | And they also say it's going to improve the local environment and the wildlife so that's why it's being done you might remember because i told you |
| 1:52.8 | about it um i spoke to jonathan wade the national highways executive who's responsible for this whole |
| 1:59.8 | project and he told me decorate the |
| 2:02.4 | bathroom rather than drive anywhere and because everyone I presume there was some lots of |
| 2:09.6 | decoration going on everyone abided by that call and it was all very smooth I was at the |
... |
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