Motorists on the M25 are facing major delays this morning after a series of crashes and breakdowns hit the clockwise carriageway in Kent and Surrey.
The disruption is concentrated around the Swanley Interchange, where a crash involving two cars has closed two lanes, and in Surrey, where a broken-down vehicle at Junction 12 and a separate multi-vehicle crash at the Wisley Interchange have left traffic queuing for miles.
This is a developing story — follow live updates below.
What we know so far
At the Swanley Interchange, two lanes are blocked following a crash involving two cars, with queues stretching for around two miles on the clockwise carriageway. Pictures from the scene show long lines of stationary traffic through the interchange.
Further west in Surrey, a broken-down vehicle at Junction 12 is causing delays of up to four miles. There are also long queues at the Wisley Interchange after a crash involving several cars and a van closed two lanes, with traffic backed up to Leatherhead and only one lane open past the scene.
National Highways cameras are showing heavy congestion on the clockwise carriageway through Surrey, with traffic building on the approaches to each of the affected stretches.
Where the problems are
The three trouble spots span a wide arc of the motorway’s southern half. The Swanley Interchange, where the M25 meets the A20 in Kent, is a key route for traffic heading towards the Dartford Crossing and Channel ports — so lane closures there ripple quickly into freight and commuter flows. In Surrey, Junction 12 is the M25’s interchange with the M3, one of the busiest junctions on the network, while the Wisley Interchange at Junction 10 serves the A3 corridor between London and Guildford.
That geography is what makes this morning particularly difficult: with incidents at both ends of the Surrey stretch, clockwise traffic has nowhere to shed the load. Drivers joining at intervening junctions are feeding straight into the back of the queues.
Advice for drivers
Drivers heading clockwise on the M25 this morning are advised to check conditions before setting off and allow significantly extra time for their journeys. National Highways publishes live traffic updates, and delay information is also shown on overhead gantry signs.
Those with flexible plans may want to delay travel until the incidents clear, while drivers already on the motorway should stay in lane, keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front and never use the hard shoulder unless directed. Congestion on the M25 can build quickly during the morning peak, and a single blocked lane can add long delays to thousands of journeys — as previous incidents on the orbital have shown.
A difficult morning on the orbital
The M25 is Britain’s busiest motorway, carrying around 200,000 vehicles a day on some stretches, and the clockwise carriageway takes the brunt of the morning peak as traffic heads towards Heathrow, the M40 and the M4 corridor. When several incidents land at once — a broken-down lorry near Merstham caused similar chaos recently — there is little spare capacity for traffic to absorb the shock.
Breakdowns and multi-vehicle collisions are among the most disruptive incidents precisely because they can close lanes for an extended period while recovery vehicles reach the scene through the very queues they are trying to clear. At Wisley, with only one lane getting past, the tailback to Leatherhead is likely to take time to unwind even after the carriageway fully reopens.
Drivers should also be aware that planned overnight roadworks continue to affect parts of the M25 this week, adding to the pressure on daytime running.
We will update this live blog as the situation develops and lanes reopen.
