What is it about the combination of transport, food and basic amenities which seems to guarantee a combination of Dante’s third, fourth and fifth circles of Hell?

If you haven’t read Inferno for a while, the sin for the third circle was gluttony, in the fourth it was avarice and the fifth was anger. Britain’s service stations don’t contribute to gluttony by offering delicious food, but by their repetitive and calorific offerings of fast food and stale rolls.

The avarice bit is obvious, since the operators of these franchises often seem to imagine the price of a sandwich should be about the price of a Dacia Sandero. Which leads to anger as inevitably as the A487 leads to Bangor.

There are a few – though only a pitifully scant few – exceptions to this general rule. Tebay services in Westmorland, for example, or Gloucester services on the A5, both of which have light, airy spaces, attractive surroundings and fresh produce (incorporating farm shops and food which looks as if human beings were involved in its production).

But for the most part, motorway services combine the ambience of 1970s municipal bus station lavatories with the prices of the Georges V hotel on the Champs Elysée.

The Transport Minister, John Hayes, has just announced that he would like to do something about this state of affairs. He has in mind something “charming and eclectic”, more like “outstations of the South Bank Centre” or “miniature Terminal Fives”.

Mr Hayes has set up a design group, which will bring together architects, motoring groups and the station providers, and which will make recommendations to the operators on how they can make their sites more welcoming, or at least less like hellholes.

I imagine we will all applaud this new initiative, especially if we happen to be Tory party strategists eager to present the party as the friend of the motorist in the run-up to the general election. Unfortunately, the details of exactly how this transformation is to be brought about are far from clear. As anyone who has driven along a motorway can tell you, you don’t always get what you want, unless what you want is Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC or an M & S sandwich.

So it’s nice that Mr Hayes thinks we deserve better amenities and higher quality design from our pitstops, but it’s harder to see exactly what he plans to do if it isn’t forthcoming. After all, if imposing quality and good taste on service providers were a straightforward business, Britain’s town centres would look very different. And even if there were some way the Department of Transport could force operators to improve, the record of government committees in making matters better is patchy, to say the least.

On the other hand, just hoping that consumer pressure will do the job may not be much good, either. A major part of the reason why motorway services are, in general, so poor is because drivers on long journeys – and particularly hauliers and others for whom the motorway network is essentially their place of work – have so few options. Taking a packed lunch, or travelling some distance from the main road to find better alternatives, just isn’t on the menu.

Still, even if it’s hard to see just how easily or quickly improvements are likely to be made, pointing out that they are an urgent priority is an important and necessary start. That’s a public service.