Britain’s best and worst motorway services ranked

A new service station on the M1 in South Yorkshire has been rated Britain’s best motorway services with a near 100% score.

Welcome Break Rotherham received a 99% satisfaction rate, with more than eight in 10 visitors saying they would recommend the services, according to the poll of 37,000 motorists by Transport Focus.

Transport Focus’s motorway services user survey asked people about toilets, accessibility, food and drink, facilities for HGV and lorry drivers and electric vehicle (EV) charging.

Seven other services received a 99% satisfaction rate, including Moto Rugby, Moto Sawtry and Welcome Break Sam Park.

Some 123 motorway services were included in the survey, with Watford Gap Northbound ranking last place for overall satisfaction.

The satisfaction score for the Northamptonshire services has declined 9% since 2023.

Watford Gap, which is located on the M1 and operated by Roadchef, also has southbound services that ranked in the bottom five.

Whilst Rotherham is one of the newest motorway services in the country after opening in January 2025, Watford Gap is the joint oldest, having opened in November 1959.

Roadchef operates four of the five services with the lowest overall satisfaction and has announced more than £300 million of investment across its business over the next five years.

The average score of all of their services was 93%, 3% lower than the joint-top operators Moto and Extra.

Louise Collins, director at Transport Focus, said: “Motorway services have improved significantly over the years, and road users are seeing the benefit.

“There is still more to do, including on car parking, wayfinding and facilities for HGV drivers, and our survey will help us track progress in these areas in the years ahead.”

Three-quarters of disabled visitors said the services catered well for their impairment.

This is an increase of 13% since 2022 but still one of the lowest scores for a category in the survey.

Ms Collins said: “We’ve also seen real progress on accessibility.

“It shows what can be achieved when the industry recognises an issue and works together to tackle it.”

HGV drivers reported a 90% rate of satisfaction and so were less satisfied with facilities than the general public.

Only 54% viewed HGV parking availability positively, 51% said the number of showers was sufficient and 42% were happy with the value of the parking package.

Value for money was another metric that was rated lower, with no services scoring higher than 74% for the value of their food and drink.

Overall satisfaction with the value of EV charging was 58% as services begin to contend with a changing fleet of road users.