You don’t need to have visited all of Britain’s 112 motorway service areas (MSAs) to know that the quality of a ‘visitor experience’ can vary enormously. The first non-temporary MSA to open in Britain did so 62 years ago. Newport Pagnell, on the M1, was constructed in a spirit of elation, designed to be a place to celebrate – if not worship – the brave new era of our fast motorway system. 

Soon after, Forton services, opening in 1965 on the M6 near Lancaster, featured a 65-foot asbestos and concrete structure, styled to mimic an aircraft control tower, complete with viewing deck and waitress-attended restaurant. Now Grade II listed but sadly closed, in its heyday the Pennine Tower Restaurant offered views as far as Morecombe Bay, its steak and kidney pie signalling a future where the MSA was a gourmet destination for discerning travellers.

In true British spirit though, the heyday didn’t last long. “I stopped at a motorway services recently for some breakfast,” goes one you’ve probably already heard. “I had a full English, a coffee and a doughnut. ‘I’m sorry but I’ve only got a £50 note,’ I told the cashier. ‘That’s okay,’ she said, “just put the doughnut back’.” Cue a thousand jibes about curled-up sandwiches and dishwater coffee.

Portraying MSAs as a homogenous disappointment would be churlish. In fact, Transport Focus, the Department of Transport-sponsored watchdog, compiles regular surveys on the degree of satisfaction felt by those visiting MSAs. Granted, it’s a government-funded group, but its findings from 2020 might not be what you’d automatically anticipate: 94% of us are either ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ satisfied with our visitor experience. Cleanliness of toilets, quality of food and ease of parking are headline positives.

If this leaves you unconvinced, a deeper dig into the data suggests growing buoyancy of satisfaction is largely due to some MSAs punching above their weight, not least the often-cited Westmorland Group, which owns the Insta-friendly farm shop of Tebay (M6), Gloucester (M5) and Cairn Lodge (M74). Indeed, the latest findings from consumer watchdog Which? show more brands of MSA are working hard to dispel the stubborn belief that a ruptured bladder in the dash for home is infinitely preferable to flirting with salmonella or a rat in an under-lit car park.

So where does this leave the ever-growing army of early adopters whose daily ride is reliant not upon scandalously overpriced petrol and diesel, but for whom those EV chargers near the foyer can be the only means of completing their journey? Bearing in mind that the average time for a fossil-fuel MSA stop is 15 minutes, a growing majority of EV users, according to Pod Point, can add a 100-mile top up in around 35 minutes. That gap, however, suggests an ideal scenario where you glide to an available charger. But given the ever-increasing take-up of EVs and a charge network that struggles to keep up with demand, it’s likely your visit won’t be quite so brief. 

As James McKemey, head of technical sales with the charge network Pod Point, recently stated: “Think of a motorway service station at peak times. You will often need to queue for a petrol pump. This is a pain and can take more than five minutes. Now imagine peak times around the rapid charger. Indeed, that is no longer a rapid charger. As EV uptake grows, even the valuable existing motorway rapid charge network will likely soon become overwhelmed.”

All of which spells investment in a good thermal flask or a loyalty card with Costa. However you splice it, any migration to EV driving spells a larger captive audience for Britain’s MSAs. So how do EV drivers learn to love them? Perhaps by Googling those listed as being the worst and trying to plan a journey that avoids them. As more rapid chargers come online, specific recommendations are unlikely to help, though as a recent snapshot from research by the Liberal Democrats shows, against a backdrop of rapid chargers being present at just 19% of UK charge points, Windsor, Swindon and Stockport are the toughest pages on the road map. 16,568 registered EV owners in the latter area sharing just 16 rapid charge points.

Research, research, research, has to be the mantra for EV owners who struggle with delayed gratification. But choose carefully, as a plug-in doesn’t always have to be painful.