Why electric cars will mean more motorway services like amazing Tebay

The extra time needed to charge an electric vehicle should encourage more investment in motorway services

It was the saddest thing I’d ever read. Grimmer than my ‘Day in the Life of Gregg Wallace’ article. Worse even than children’s books by David Walliams. A different level of bleak.

In a newspaper feature about the changing face of motorway service stations, the writer spoke to passing customers. Families with kids who needed the loo, lorry drivers stopping for fuel, business travellers grabbing a quick sandwich.

And an elderly couple who drove from their home to the same spot for lunch every Sunday. They had the meal deal, whatever that happened to be, except on Christmas Day when they had the turkey. In fact they’d had Christmas lunch at that same table in that same service station for eight years running. That is either testament to the unbreakable power of the human spirit or heartbreaking on another level.

King Charles tries a sheep's milk cheese called Love Ewe at Tebay Services on the southbound carriageway of the M6 (Picture: Arthur Edwards) | POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Less jolly than Tebay

Which one probably depends on the service station. Last week I stopped at Tebay in Cumbria in glorious sunshine and sat outside their farmshop with a great coffee and delicious sandwich. All around me, more organised people were having packed lunches they’d brought from home to enjoy in the well tended grounds.

My next stop in the West Midlands was a lot less jolly. The surroundings were tatty and the food managed to be extortionate and unappetising in equal measure. Over and above that, the biker gang and already drunk guests who spilled out of a bus on their way to a wedding gave the place a frisson that things were about to seriously kick off.

The first motorway service station in this country opened at Watford Gap more than half a century ago. We’ve had plenty of experience so why do we find it so hard to get them right?

T in the Park toilets

Most of us want the same thing on a journey stop. We need fuel, decent coffee, something nice to eat, clean loos and a short respite from kids asking “are we nearly there yet?” Instead we get fast food concessions, a blaring amusement arcade and loos resembling Sunday night at T in the Park.

It's like nothing has changed in this country in the last 50 years. Ironically one of the biggest differences to how we travel could be the best hope for the years ahead.

At the moment only about 4 per cent of cars registered in the UK are electric but as that figure rises they will need somewhere to charge on a long journey. That’s likely to increase the dwell well time at each location which should raise spending and encourage investment and better facilities.

A simple philosophy

Alternatively just hand the entire motorway service station network over to Sarah Dunning. Her parents John and Barbara diversified from hill farming to open Tebay when the motorway was built through their land in 1972 and the family still run that location plus Gloucester Services and Cairn Lodge on the A74.

They always win every award going and have a simple philosophy, no concessions or big-name brands just good food and drink sourced from local producers and served in nice surroundings. On top of that they spent £150,000 establishing a market garden to grow produce but also offer jobs to people struggling with mental health.

And at Tebay, a cooked breakfast costs just £7.25. You know where to stop.