Easter holidaymakers have been warned of delays of up to 90 minutes at the Port of Dover, while car traffic is expected to double on some major road networks.
As bank holiday getaways begin, a walkout by security at Heathrow Terminal 5 has also seen British Airways cancel dozens of flights, while striking French air-traffic controllers have also prompted cancellations.
After people were left stuck on coaches for up to 18 hours last weekend in chaos at Dover, officials stressed that “extra measures” were in place for Easter, but warned people to bring supplies in case of delays as the holiday rush kicked off with “high volumes of traffic”.
As of 9am on Good Friday, ferry operator DFDS said traffic was still “free flowing through check-in” at Dover, but warned of queues of between an hour and 90 minutes at border controls, as intensified post-Brexit passport checks continued to take their toll.
But the worst disruption was expected for those travelling by train, with an £88m programme of more than 600 engineering works taking place over the Easter weekend.
Traffic queues at Port of Dover on Friday
(Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)
Most severe is the closure of 50 miles of the West Coast main line between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central, forcing those travelling to and from the West Midlands, northwest England, North Wales and southern Scotland to find alternative routes.
Other notable routes affected are those from London Victoria to Gatwick and Brighton, and the line through Hope and Edale between Sheffield and Manchester, alongside ongoing major works at Carstairs.
Network Rail route director James Dean defended the timing, telling the BBC: “The bank holiday period is still the lowest period of passenger traffic, so we do keep an eye on that and make sure we’re disrupting as [few] people as possible.”
Fifty miles of the West Coast main line are closed between London Euston and Milton Keynes
(Victoria Jones/PA)
The RAC warned that 17 million cars were expected on the roads for leisure purposes on Good Friday, hitting highways in the south of England particularly hard.
More than double the typical amount was expected on the A303 westbound near Stonehenge, M5 south between Bristol and Bridgwater, and a large western section of the M25 – with vehicle speeds expected to reach as low as 12mph.
The RAC’s Rod Dennis urged those in…
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