I hate motorway service stations. Even the new one at Norton Canes on the M6-Toll just caused irritation. Also the service station that I used to like stopping at, because it was just different, at Tebay in the Lake District was poor.
So, what is the problem with all these services stations?
First they are all pretty much alike (except Tebay, which at least has some character). Now, I don't mind identikit facilities if they supply what I want, but they pretty much don't.
On a long drive I'll have to stop for a meal at some point, yesterday I managed to wait until I got to Tebay for my evening meal and by that point I was really quite hungry. They at least supplied a decent meal although not my preferred choice (my choice of Chilli con Carne with Chips was really the best of a bad bunch) I had to wait a few minutes, as did others for the chips, but once I sat down it was actually acceptable. My main problem with food at service stations is the amount of stodgy high carb food they serve. And the more carbs you eat the more the body has to work to process them causing drowsiness - For someone driving alone this is not good. I try and avoid those food but often there is just no choice. A programme I saw last year the MD of one of the motorway service companies was saying they supplied what the public wants. Well, this member of the public does NOT want food that will make him fall asleep at the wheel. I want a decent meal, but one which won't make me drowsy.
Next up is the price of everything. Once at the service station they've got you. If you don't know the local area you are not going to wander off to find something better priced. If you are in a hurry you are not going to go off the motorway to find a better priced place for lunch. Given the poor quality of everything and the amount of people passing through they must be raking it in.
If I don't have any passengers in the car to talk to then I like to listen to audio books. Unfortunately, if the selection I take with me runs out I have a look at what the service stations offer, and it isn't much. A selection of has-been comedians and abridged populist novels. In short, there is practically nothing of worth in the selection. Even with it being the release of the final Harry Potter book last week, I would have expected to see the audio book of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows somewhere.
Finally, the general cleanliness of the service stations leaves a lot to be desired. Some are okay, like Norton Caines and Oxford because they are quite new. But even those really need to work on getting the state of the toilets up to a good standard. Often I find that cubicle doors have broken locks which need to be fixed, wash basins are filled with dirty water, there are never enough hand driers.
The one posititive thing I will say is that you can at least buy Irn-Bru in all the service stations I stopped at, even the ones in the south of England.
Just to enumerate the service stations I stopped at on my trip to Maidenhead and back:
- Southbound
- Abington
- Keele
- Looked for dinner (failed - nothing looked nice)
- Norton Canes
- Got dinner (turned out to be dried out chicken, yet it was from a brand new batch!)
- Refuelled
- Northbound
- Oxford
- Used toilets
- Looked for audio book (failed)
- Norton Canes
- Used toilets
- Looked for audio book (failed)
- Refuelled
- Burton-in-Kendal
- Looked for audio book (failed)
- Looked for food (failed - all looked poor quality)
- Tebay
- Looked for audio book (failed)
- Got dinner (passable chilli con carne)
- Used toilets (three attempts to find a usable cubicle - but there was a plumber trying to fix them)
I stopped a couple of other places on each journey to buy drinks and use the facilities, but I don't recall which service stations they were.
I'm also sending an email to each of these service stations to afford them a right-of-reply.
Tags: 
motorway 
motorway service area 
msa 
services 
norton caines 
oxford 
burton-in-kendal 
keele 
abington 
tebay