Easter travel warning: road and rail delays

Credit: PA

Londoners are being warned to expect transport delays over the Easter break, with roads jammed with holiday makers and some rail services shut down.

The RAC has forecast that four million motorists will be travelling on Good Friday and around 4.5 million on Easter Sunday, although tomorrow is likely to be the busiest day on the roads.

According to Trafficmaster, the top five busiest stretches of road are likely to be:

  • A303 westbound through Hampshire, Wiltshire and Somerset

  • M1 from junction 6A (M25 interchange) to junction 13 east of Milton Keynes, and from junction 23A in Leicestershire to junction 32 south of Rotherham

  • M5 from junction 15 north of Bristol towards junction 31 (Exeter)

  • M6 through the West Midlands (from junction 4A) and northwards towards Lancashire (junction 21A)

  • M25 all sections, especially both ways around junctions 14-17 around Heathrow Airport

But there will be some relief for motorists, with more than 550 miles of roadworks to be temporarily suspended over Easter to help ease congestion.

Highways England, formerly the Highways Agency, said that for safety reasons, lane restrictions or temporary speed limits will remain at 69 locations.

For those planning to travel by train, rail bosses are warning of delays due to major engineering upgrades.

Credit: PA

One of the most disrupted routes will be the London to Scotland West Coast main line.

Disruptions include:

  • No Virgin or London Midland trains in or out of Euston station between Good Friday and Easter Monday

  • No Southeastern services to or from Charing Cross, Waterloo East or Cannon Street stations

  • Improvement work on the West Coast line between Crewe and Warrington and between Carlisle and Glasgow which will severely restrict Virgin services to northern England and Scotland

Virgin is "strongly recommending" that passengers do not travel between Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Rail bosses are hoping there is no repeat of the chaos that struck the King's Cross and at Paddington stations last Christmas. Engineering works on the rail lines caused long delays for passengers.

Gatwick Airport will handle around 480,000 passengers between Good Friday and Easter Monday, an 11% increase on the same time last year.