County: Essex Date opened: 1996 Road M11 motorway | Operator: Welcome Break Website: Welcome Break Phone +44 1279 653388 | |
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Address Dunmow Rd, Bishop's Stortford CM23 5QZ, UK | ||
Ring of red 2016 leaving birchanger green services
Birchanger services is a motorway service station on the M11 motorway at Birchanger near Stansted in Essex, England. It is owned by Welcome Break.
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In 2006, Birchanger had the lowest overall rating of all UK motorway service areas on the independent Motorway Services Info website. It often suffers serious congestion because the service area is very large but the site has a narrow exit and entry road which can only accommodate limited traffic. Additionally, the exit and entry roads are controlled by traffic lights whose green phase is too short to accommodate all the vehicles trying to enter and leave the site. This means that the service area can generate huge traffic jams around its own internal roads. Motorists have been known to spend more than half an hour simply trying to leave the site. This can happen when traffic on the surrounding main roads and nearby M11 is flowing perfectly freely.