M40

M40

London to Solihull

The second motorway from London to Birmingham, calling in at Oxford on the way, is calmer and prettier than the alternative - but caused far more problems to build.

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M40

M40 and A40

It's one of London's most complete radial routes, but the road envisioned by sixties planners would have been bigger: perhaps a motorway, perhaps double-deck, perhaps not.

Routes

M40 at 50 10 July 2017

The M40 has just turned 50. Here are five things you might not know about the London to Birmingham motorway.

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M40

What's new

The road that made no sense

It was the UK's only single-carriageway motorway, and twenty years ago it ceased to exist. This is the story of the strange fascination it held, and of my place in history.

The forever bottleneck, part 2

The second part of the story, where we learn why exactly the M4 gets narrower on the final approach to Europe’s biggest city.

The forever bottleneck, part 1

The M4 into London was one of the UK's earliest and most ambitious motorway projects. It was bold, pioneering... and almost instantly regretted.

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