Millions of people are set to run into travel chaos this Easter weekend – with roads, railways and airports across the UK affected.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he would be “lifting more than a thousand miles of roadworks” from Good Friday until Easter Monday, writing on X (formerly Twitter): “No one wants to spend their Easter weekend stuck in traffic”. It came as fears mounted over impending gridlock on major routes, with tens of millions of people expected to take to the roads as they head off on bank holiday getaways and travel to see family. Network Rail is meanwhile set to begin its massive Easter engineering works, which will see them work on more than 300 projects across Britain over the four-day weekend – causing a number of lines to be closed.
The Mirror has broken down what you can expect over the Easter bank holiday weekend below, from rails to roads and even if you’re jetting off in a plane.
Some of the biggest impacts will be felt at London Euston, the 10th busiest railway station in the UK, which will have no services to or from Milton Keynes on Saturday and Easter Sunday. It will also reduced timetable on Good Friday and Monday to allow engineering work to take place, including renewals of overhead electric lines and drainage improvements.
Services on the West Coast Main Line between Saturday and Monday will meanwhile start and terminate at Carlisle, with replacement buses serving stations to the north. Platforms 1-8 will be closed at London Victoria, meaning no Southeastern trains will serve the station over the four-day bank holiday period.
Services will be diverted to London Bridge or London Cannon Street. Engineering work in the Southampton and Brockenhurst areas will close various lines in the region, meaning trains running through the popular New Forest area will be affected.
Helen Hamlin, Network Rail’s director of system operations, said: “The vast majority of the rail network will be open as usual for people wanting to travel over the Easter bank holiday, but there will be changes to services in some areas, so we’re asking passengers to plan ahead and check before they travel.
“We carry out a large amount of our work over the Easter period as passenger numbers are lower than they typically would be, disrupting fewer journeys, and the two bank holidays either side of the weekend give us a unique opportunity to get more work done whilst keeping disruption to a minimum.”
Network Rail said it will deliver investments totalling £86 million over the Easter period.
It’ll also be a busy bank holiday on the roads, and drivers are being advised to prepare for congestion around town and city centres, retail parks and major routes.
This inlcudes M6 at Birmingham and around the Blackpool area, the south and western section of the M25 between the M23 and M40, the M5 at Bristol and the A303 in Wiltshire.
According to the AA, an estimated 19.1 million people in the UK will drive on Good Friday alone, with 18.5 million hitting the road on Saturday and 18.2 million on each of Easter Sunday and Monday.
Gatwick Airport, the second busiest in the UK after Heathrow, is set to face strike action during the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. Baggage handlers and flight dispatchers will walk out in protest over pension disputes and payment delays – meaning flight delays, short-notice cancellations, and long queues at check-in are likely.
The strike action will start on Good Friday and last until Tuesday. Passengers worried about their flight are advised to check with their airline.
Bad weather could also spell trouble for Easter travel plans. Steven Skeates, deputy chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said there will be “changeable weather for many” during the bank holiday weekend.
An area of low pressure could bring “heavy and possibly even disruptive rain” on Good Friday for parts of south-west England, Northern Ireland and South Wales, he added. RAC breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson said if the heavy rain becomes a reality “many drivers may have their journeys disrupted as they set off for day trips and long weekends”.
She added: “It’s vital to plan ahead and be prepared for trips to take longer because of the wet weather and the expected getaway congestion.”
Ms Simpson said an estimated 6.2 million people are “undecided” on when they will travel for an Easter leisure trip, which means “any sign of sun” could spark “big jams”.
National Highways said it has removed roadworks from 1,127 miles of motorways and major A roads in England, meaning 97.5% of its network is free of traffic cones for Easter getaways.
Tourism authority VisitEngland estimates that around 10.6 million British adults are planning to take a holiday in the UK over the bank holiday period.
Meanwhile travel trade organisation Abta said approximately 2.2 million Britons will head overseas during the long weekend, with Good Friday being the busiest day for travel. Some 11,282 flights are scheduled to depart UK airports between Good Friday and Monday, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.
That is 6% more than during last year’s Easter, but remains 4% down from Easter 2019. The most common international destinations for UK departures this Easter are Dublin, Amsterdam, Malaga, Alicante and Mallorca.
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