How your travel plans could be disrupted over the Easter holidays

Credit: PA

By Daniel Boal, ITV News Multimedia Producer

A combination of transport strikes, rail engineering works and traffic disruption could make travelling this Easter weekend a challenge for millions of British holidaymakers.

An estimated two million people are heading overseas during the Easter bank holiday weekend.

That is up 11% compared with Easter 2022, but remains 13% below the total for Easter 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.

Motorways

Drivers have been warned to expect long delays on popular routes over the coming days.

The RAC is predicting up to 17 million leisure trips by car will take place between Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Major roads in south-west England and some in the Home Counties are likely to experience the worst congestion on Good Friday.

Queues are likely to be worsened by engineering work on the railways, including the closure of London Euston station over the bank holiday weekend.

RAC spokesman Rod Dennis said: "With many people keen to make the most of the double bank holiday this Easter weekend, we're expecting the customary jams across parts of the road network to make this Good Friday a bad Friday for drivers, especially those who are planning on covering longer distances.

"Traffic volumes could be even higher if the sun chooses to make a welcome appearance.

"The South and West are the areas to watch as they're home to some vital roads responsible for carrying vast numbers of people to the holiday destinations of the West Country.

"Our advice to anyone heading that way is to get on the road as early as possible on Good Friday, or travel on a different day entirely."

Flights

Heathrow Airport will see the largest number of departures, with 2,445, followed by Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester.

It comes as 1,400 members of the Unite union working in security at Heathrow announced they would be going on strike from March 31 till April 9.

The strike action has forced British Airways to cancel dozens of flights but disruption is expected to be limited to terminal 5 at the airport.

Passengers view the departures boards at Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport, London. Credit: PA

A Heathrow spokesman said: "Our contingency plans have kept the airport operating normally with security free-flowing throughout.

"We will continue to deliver for our passengers and will not let Unite ruin hard-earned holidays. Heathrow is a good employer.

"We know a majority of colleagues do not support these strikes and want to accept the 10% pay increase on the table, Unite simply refuses to allow them to vote on it."

Rail

Train operators will be running services over the Easter break, however routes and timetables across the UK have been amended due to ongoing engineering works.

The most significant of which are at London Euston and London Victoria.

Services between Euston and Milton Keynes Central have been suspended for the entire weekend.

While ongoing track and signaling upgrades mean there will be no Southern or Gatwick Express services running to or from London Victoria over the Easter weekend.

Network Rail has urged customers to plan journeys in advance due to the expected disruption caused by more than 600 scheduled engineering works over the weekend.

Ferry

Holidaymakers booked on cross-Channel ferries from the Port of Dover are facing delays at the start of the Easter getaway.

Queues for passport checks by French officials at the Kent port are “up to 90 minutes”, ferry operator DFDS wrote on Twitter.

Traffic at the Port of Dover in Kent as the getaway begins for the Easter weekend. Credit: PA

There are fears travellers at Dover will face more disruption after chaotic scenes last weekend when thousands of people were delayed, reportedly by up to 14 hours.

Delays at the port have been blamed on French border officials carrying out extra checks and stamping UK passports following Brexit.

Port officials said they held a “urgent review” with ferry operators and the French authorities in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last weekend’s delays.

Ferry companies are asking coach operators booked on sailings on Good Friday – expected to be the busiest day for outbound Easter travel from Dover – to “spread the travel” across the three-day period from Thursday to Saturday.

Additional “temporary border control infrastructure” has also been installed.

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