'A flight of fancy': Sightseers pay £15 to enjoy four-hour coach tour of the M25

 

Drivers reading this while stuck on the M25 might want to look away now - because the source of their commuter misery is about to become a tourism attraction.

Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company is giving day trippers the chance to see the best the London Orbital has to offer.

Arguably, you may think this is not very much.

Gridlock: The congested M25 might not be the first place you'd think would make a day out

But the forthcoming tour is hoping to dispel any negative connotations this 117-mile stretch of road has built up.

The firm's website urges travellers not to 'miss this opportunity to take a leisurely trip around the M25 with, for once, no time pressures or worries about arriving at your destination on time!'

Tourists pay £15 to travel the four-hour route, which begins at Junction 7.

It is being kept as a 'surprise' whether the driver travels clockwise or anti-clockwise after which the journey takes in 'amazing sights' which include Epping Forest, Heathrow Airport’s Terminal Five, Lakeside and the 'magnificent' Dartford River Crossing bridge.

Passengers will also be treated to a running commentary on ‘interesting facts about the motorway’s evolution’ and there will be a competition to guess the distance travelled by the coach with a bottle of champagne for the winner.

Company spokesman Roger French described the motorway as ‘fascinating’ and 'iconic'.According to the BBC, he said: 'It goes through six home counties and you get a whole taste of the variety of London.

'In Essex you come to Epping Forest and coming round by Heathrow you see the planes coming in to land.'

He added: 'As you go around past Clacket Lane Services, you get some lovely views from our coach that you just don't see from a car.'

The M25 - opened in October 1986 at a cost of £909 million - has been mocked as 'Britain's biggest car park' for its congestion and eternal roadworks.

The company's website adds: 'The M25 has been named the least entertaining and most boring road in Britain over the years.

'Let us try to prove these judgements wrong with a “flight of fancy” around the London Orbital.'

It has also been revealed that competition to the tour is in the offing.

(Daily Mail)