Drivers are being warned to expect ‘carmageddon’ on the roads this week as millions of Britons are set to embark on their Easter holidays.
Motoring company RAC has warned that journeys on popular routes could take twice as long as usual as the bank holiday weekend coincides with the start of the Easter break.
Long delays are expected on Britain’s motorways as 14 million cars hit the roads, while airports and airlines are expecting numbers to finally return to pre-pandemic levels.
Whether you’re travelling via air, road or rail, here are the places expected to see the most severe traffic and congestion throughout the holidays.
Airport Chaos
Around two million Brits are set to fly away over the weekend, with Bristol, Edinburgh and Newcastle airports predicting record numbers of passengers.
Bristol Airport in particular says around 30,000 people are set to fly on Easter Sunday alone, with routes to Geneva tipped to be extremely busy.
Manchester Airport also said it was preparing for about 320,000 passengers over the weekend, 8% more than the equivalent last year.
Budget airline Easyjet also says it is anticipating its busiest ever Easter weekend, while Luton airport says it is expecting to see 38 passengers a minute on April 5.
Meanwhile Glasgow airport says it has hired additional staff in order to deal with ‘three exceptionally busy weekends ahead’.
In many cases, airports and airlines say they are expecting the number of fliers to exceed 2019 levels.
‘Carmageddon’
A survey commissioned by the RAC and Inrix found that around 14.5 million journeys are set to take place over the Easter holidays.
Inrix transportation analyst Bob Pishue said that ‘drivers should be prepared for longer journeys than normal throughout the entire weekend,’ and predicted Thursday afternoon to be the busiest time to be on the road, as holiday travellers mingle with regular commuters.
The busiest routes are set to be the western section of the M25 between the M23 for Gatwick and the M1 for Hertfordshire where journeys from 4pm are tipped to take more than two hours- more than double their usual length.
The M5 southbound between Bristol and Taunton, and the M3 between the M25 and the south coast is also likely to see severe congestion, with journey times expected to take twice as long as usual.
To further complicate matters, a yellow weather warning for strong winds and snow has been issued by the Met Office, with conditions from Storm Nelson set to further disrupt travel.
RAC spokesperson Alice Simpson warned that the traffic and weather conditions ‘could be carmageddon’ over Easter, and said heavy traffic and ‘lengthy queues can be expected along routes to the usual hotspots’.
Railworks bring more disruption
Trains are also set to face severe delays as Network Rail carries out engineering works on the West Coast Main Line, which runs from London Euston to Scotland.
Earlier this week, Network Rail’s strategy director Laurence Bowman said there is ‘never a good time to do the work we need to do’, but explained that a lower number of commuters over the bank holiday weekend gives them ‘the opportunity to do major work we couldn’t do in a normal weekend’.
‘We’ve got 493 different pieces of work taking place this Easter, most happening overnight,’ he added, ‘including laying over 8,000 metres of new rail and putting down over 40,000 tonnes of new ballast to support the tracks.’
Major disruption is also expected in rail services from Glasgow and Huddersfield.
Dover Delays
Meanwhile, travellers planning on catching a ferry from Dover have been warned to expect severe delays and long queues at the port, with wait times estimated to exceed two hours.
In a statement, border staff pointed to the recent terror alert issued in France following the Moscow terror attacks as a reason for the delays, citing the need for increased security checks.
‘These measures may increase border processing times at the port,’ the statement read.
‘Please be mindful of this when travelling to the port and check with your ferry operator for arrival times.’
Around 20,000 cars are expected to travel through Dover’s port between Thursday and Easter, and a coach processing facility has been set up in advance in a bid to ease pressure on travellers.
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