M23 Breakdown
Recovery Service

The M23 is a short but surprisingly busy motorway that provides the vital road link between the M25 London orbital and Gatwick Airport, the UK's second busiest airport. At just 15 miles, it might seem insignificant, but the volume and variety of traffic it carries — airport passengers with early morning flights, airline staff on shift patterns, cargo vehicles serving the airport's freight terminals, and commuters heading to Crawley's substantial office district — give it a character that belies its modest length.

The motorway begins at Junction 7 where it branches from the M25 near Hooley on the North Downs. The descent from the Downs through the Merstham gap is one of the steepest sections of motorway in south-east England, and the chalk cutting that carries the road through the ridge creates a microclimate where ice forms earlier in winter than on surrounding roads. On clear days, the view from the top of the cutting extends across the Surrey Weald towards the South Downs, but drivers are more likely to be focused on the brake lights of the vehicle in front as they join the queue for the airport.

The Gatwick Airport section around Junction 9A is the motorway's centre of gravity. The airport operates around the clock, and the M23 sees traffic surges at hours when most roads are quiet — 3am and 4am departures for early charter flights generate surprising volumes of bleary-eyed drivers unfamiliar with the route. The Pease Pottage services near Junction 11 at the southern end of the motorway is a welcome facility, but drivers heading north from the Sussex coast towards the airport often bypass it and then find themselves in slow traffic with no further options. The M23 terminates at Pease Pottage where it feeds into the A23 towards Brighton, and this transition from motorway to A-road catches some drivers off guard with its roundabout and lower speed limit. The motorway's overall profile — a descent from the North Downs, a flat stretch through the Low Weald, and relatively straight alignment — makes it deceptively easy to drive fast, and speed-related incidents are proportionally more common here than on more challenging routes.