Drivers facing ‘hat-trick’ of nightmare delays on Easter weekend as 6.2million hit the road – plan now to avoid chaos
MOTORISTS have been warned they could have to battle a “hat-trick” of nightmare Easter weekend delays as 6.2million hit the road.
RAC experts have urged drivers to prepare for “severe” delays from Thursday to Bank Holiday Monday.
Inrix, a transport analytics company, estimated headache queues of more than an hour on the M25 from junction 7 for Gatwick to junction 16 for the M40 on Thursday.
Drivers have also been warned of hold ups on the M6 north of Chester and the M25 clockwise towards Godstone, Surrey.
Elsewhere, the A303 in Wiltshire and the M5 southbound from Bristol are also expected to face some backlog.
Meanwhile, Good Friday day-trippers could see jams lasting from 11am to 1pm.
On Monday, the worst traffic will be between 10am and 5pm, while it will be between 9am and 4pm on Good Friday.
Alice Simpson, of the RAC, said: “The late bank holiday weekend clashes with the end of the Easter break for many schools which we think will change the nature of this year’s getaway.
“Although journey numbers are still very high, we’re anticipating more day trips and weekend breaks than people heading off on one- and two-week stints.
“This could lead to a hat-trick of hold-ups on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as drivers visit family and friends.
“It’s always best to travel as early as possible in the morning or later in the day when most of the traffic has eased, especially to popular holiday destinations such as the West Country, Scotland or Wales.”
Brits headed to the Port of Dover have been told to expect around 5,500 cars making the same journey between 6am and 1pm on Good Friday.
Ferry users have been advised to use the main routes to port and arrive no more than two hours early.
To help with traffic management, Operation Brock will be in place in Kent and this will see drivers reduced to a 50mph speed limit.
It is designed to manage traffic flows on the M20 motorway in the event of delays at Channel ports, which are seeing high demand from holidaymakers.
Operation Brock is in place on a 13-mile stretch of the motorway between Junction 8 for Maidstone and Junction 9 for Ashford.
This will last until April 22.
To make matters worse, there are rail words planned across the country on Easter weekend.
Network Rail warned the worst affected area will be London Euston, where there will be no services to or from Milton Keynes on Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday.
There will also be a reduced timetable on Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Meanwhile, at UK airports, around 11,282 flights are expected to take off across the weekend, according to Cirium.
This comes after long queues were seen at the Port of Dover yesterday after an IT failure forced manual passport checks.
Travellers were told to expect delays of up to 45 minutes just after 7am at the UK’s busiest international ferry port.
It was reported that there was an issue with the border processing systems on the French side.
The Dover Harbour Board said this has forced officials to check passports manually.
The port added that it was working with “French colleagues” to solve the problem.