Secrets of The Motorway - M25 Part 1

#m25 #motorway #infrastructure #driving #cars

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In this video we begin to explore the M25... perhaps the most notorious motorway in all of the UK. It's surrounds London and was the left overs of a failed road building project leading to some interesting choices and decisions.

It seems to do everything wrong and I don't think there are many that have a good word to say about the M25 but it's the only motorway left so I've no option but to tackle this giant.

[tonybrook]

'The project will cost £317 million pounds, and when it's finished, it will make no difference at all' 😂😂
' The Roman artefacts are lovingly positioned next to the toilets' 😂😂
Keep on keepin' on Jon

[borisvallet]

As a French guy, "should the merde hit the ventilateur" was such a lovely touch 👌

[leopold]

Quick, build some more motorways! We can’t let this series end!

[divgradcurl]

I think Jon is a secret 'Rail Enthusiast' who is not yet out, considering the number of times we take a diversion away from his road analyses... Any / all transport interests me as well as industrial history - so all such 'diversions' are greatly appreciated! Cheers Jon, looking forward to many more great videos in 2024.

[wilber]

That’s the quickest I’ve ever travelled from Dartford to junction 10 in my life! 😂

[Ezox]

"you'll find the former RAF winsley airfield, it was built during the small disagreement between 1939-44"
absolute killer line

[veloistist]

I can remember them slowly building the bits of the M25 and then the final joining together. It’s fascinating to see how years of traffic misery culminated in years of traffic misery.

[leegriffin]

In the (sort of) words of the late and wonderful Sir Terry Pratchett, the M25 being circular manages to make tail backs so bad they become tail forwards.

[Stephen_Lafferty]

Finishing the 'secrets of the motorways' project with the highway to hell!

[JBobjork]

I love the ending where you pause for cars passing :)

[ttrjw]

Junction 9 was built in the fashion it was so as to support the Leatherhead by-pass which runs parallel to the M25 and was built by Surrey CC at the same time as the motorway.

The land had been reserved as it was originally going to be used to complete the extension of the Chessingto South railway branch to Leatherhead.

[Daz_Stap]

Another belter of a video. I can remember navigating the parts of the London Orbital that had been built in my Dad's lorry during 1982 / 83. It involved driving on completed sections, then leaving and driving through towns to rejoin further on!

[timsully]

It seems so de regeur now that it’s almost impossible to imagine what it was like without the M25 being there, but I can certainly recall how difficult it was to get to places before, especially around Dartford Tunnel where a lot of the A13 was still single carriageway 🤯

I really liked the Jay Foreman video from years ago about the orbital projects and where weird bits of Road exist with wildly elaborate junctions considering the small volume of traffic that they see, so this served as a great refresher! That bit where you go down hill to the A21 junction has been the scene of a few interesting occurrences that I have witnessed where people have only realised which lane they need at the last moment and almost caused a complete catastrophe 😮 Thankfully I’ve yet to see one that succumbed to an actual accident! 🤞

Excellent content as ever. You even managed to include Roman relics, an abandoned airfield and an abandoned and demolished railway station, so it ticked loads of boxes for me 😎🍀🍻👍

[thenorthernirishexplorer]

Hi Jon. Another great video as always.
Once you've finished Secrets of the Motorways you can continue the series as there are still the motorways of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as numerous A roads(e.g. the A14, the A55, the A38 Devon Expressway).

[nickbarber]

Well done Jon for taking on the behemoth that is the M25...this is going to be a multi-multi-parter....

[markiliff]

7:00 I saw the VC10 over Wisley on its maiden flight (was living in Horsley at the time). My mum didn't believe 9y/o me until she read about it in the paper the next day

[testpilotian]

Clackers Lane was also picked for the service area because that part of the motorway was notorious for thick fog whenever anybody looked at it sideways resulting in hundreds of crashes over the years up to the infamous 1984 one, the theory was if they put buildings on the area that continuously produced heat, it would reduce the amount of fog that hung about in the air, it worked as there hadn’t been any major accidents due to fog on that stretch of the motorway since.

Talking of thick fog, there also a memorial about hundred yards west of the fort on Reigate hill where a USAF B17 bomber crashed into the hill in thick fog during that little disagreement in the early 1940’s although one of the more obscure conspiracies I’ve heard is it was shot down by friendly fire.

[matthewwright]

The one we've all been waiting for!

[AdeptHavelock]

I think...regardless of how they got there...most people who end up in Tunbridge Wells would wonder 'what's gone wrong' 😂

[mnccbbt]

This brought back memories from 1981-83, when I worked in Sevenoaks. The Group HR director seemed to spend more time trying to stop the M25 going through the Darenth Valley between the A20/M20 and the western end of the M26 (8 miles) than he spent on his day job. He thought it quite reasonable to go south-east from Swanley on the M20 and then westwards on the M26 (17 miles). Anyway, they did build the Darenth Valley stretch and I was so impressed by this use of senior management time that I left after less than two years.