M3

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The M3 is a motorway in England from Sunbury, London to Basset, Southampton. Soon after starting at Sunbury, it crosses the M25 at a whirlpool interchange, and heading west past Bagshot and Farnborough. At Basingstoke, it begins to curve more onto a south-west direction, more so after junction 8. Here, the A303 leaves with traffic heading to Devon and the south-west and the M3 reduces to two lanes in both directions as it heads south towards Winchester. It increases to three lanes on meeting the A34 at junction 9 for Winnal and by-passing Winchester, after which it replaced what was the A33 dual carriageway to Southampton, before which it merges with the M27 at a triangular interchange.

Until fairly recently, there was a gap at Winchester with traffic being directed down the town's old and - for modern traffic and volumes - rather substandard bypass. This was replaced with a new motorway cutting across a nature area called Twyford Down. There was a lot of protests and opposition to this, including from the EU. The cutting was built but despite taking land from a nature area, it has reduced congestion which was a big problem on the old Winchester Bypass. That said, the southern half of the M3 can suffer heavy traffic volumes and some congestion, especially during rush hours and holiday travel times.

The motorway's corresponding railway is the South Western Main Line.