Millions face Easter travel chaos as record number of drivers hit Britain’s roads

Millions of Britons are facing an Easter weekend of travel chaos with a record number of cars on the road, major rail disruption and long queues at ferry ports and airports.

The RAC says drivers are collectively planning more than 21 million leisure journeys by car this weekend despite the soaring cost of fuel.

It is the highest number since the organisation first started tracking motorists’ plans in 2014. The busiest day is set to be Good Friday, followed by Easter Monday.

Supplies of petrol and diesel at filling stations in some areas of the country are running at around half their usual level.

Petrol stock levels at garages in eastern England averaged 19% as of 10 April, with southeast England recording 21% and London 22%, a drop from the pre-pandemic average of 40%.

The scale of the Easter getaway on the roads is likely to be increased because of the closures of key parts of the West Coast Main railway line — one of 530 Network Rail Easter engineering projects costing a total of £83m.

Most supporters of Manchester City and Liverpool are expected to drive to Wembley to watch the semi-final of the FA Cup on Saturday.

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According to the traffic data service Inrix, the busiest locations are likely to be on the northbound M6 north between Warrington and the Lake District; the southbound M6 heading towards Stoke-on-Trent; the M25 between the M23 for Gatwick and the M40 junction for Oxford, taking in the M3 and M4 junctions; and the A303 near Stonehenge.

The road network in Kent is also disrupted because of the closure of a key 20-mile stretch of the M20 for use by trucks seeking to travel to France by tunnel or ferry.

P&O Ferries, which suspended operations on the Dover-Calais route four weeks ago, will not resume sailings after two of its ships were detained for further safety inspections by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Aviation data firm Cirium said 9,212 flights with 1.6 million seats are scheduled to depart from UK airports between Good Friday and Easter Monday. The number of flights is 78% of the total for Easter 2019, before the coronavirus crisis affected travel.

RAC traffic spokesman Rod Dennis said: “Although we’re expecting the biggest number of Easter getaway trips by car on Friday – around 4.6m – it’s clear some drivers are keen to make an early escape ahead of the bank holiday.

“As well as the closure of the coastbound M20 for Operation Brock Zero, earlier collisions are causing problems on the southeastern M25 and roads connecting with it, as well as on the A303 in Wiltshire.

“From a breakdown perspective, we’re seeing high demand for our service across northern England, especially around the Lake District, as well as the coastal areas of west Wales.”

National Highways said there were 90-minute delays near the Dartford Tunnel in Kent on Thursday. There were also 30-minute delays due to the M18 being closed in South Yorkshire.

Elsewhere, images on social media showed a large number of people waiting for Tui check-in desks at Manchester Airport, with other customers telling of a 90-minute wait for luggage.

A Tui spokesperson said: “We can confirm that unfortunately due to staff shortages at Manchester Airport today, some customers are experiencing longer-than-usual queue times at check-in.

“Please be assured that our teams are working as quickly as they can.”

One passenger, Lukasz Ceglecki, from Burton upon Trent, said although there were lengthy queues, they were moving “relatively” quickly.

Another, Adam Francis, said on Twitter: “Utterly shambolic scenes in terminal 2 at manairport when a cleaner is the only person to provide any information on why we have no bags after 90 minutes.

“Even then she doesn’t know when we will get them.”

Manchester Airport said passengers are advised to arrive three hours before their flight and double check their hand luggage.

Meanwhile, those at Birmingham Airport told of waiting in hour-long queues for security, despite paying £4-per-person for fast-track services.

Joe Clifford, who was flying to Malaga in Spain, told the PA news agency it took him about an hour to get through security because of “very long queues”.

Dozens of British Airways and EasyJet flights to and from Heathrow and Gatwick were cancelled.

Rail passengers have also been warned of delays as Network Rail carries out 530 engineering projects costing a total of £83m.

This includes the closure of the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Milton Keynes for four days from Good Friday due to upgrades of the existing line and HS2 work.

Parts of the railway between Birmingham International station and Coventry will also be closed, as will lines around Crewe station.

Those at London St Pancras said there were long queues for services to Europe on Thursday morning.

One passenger heading for France said he had waited for more than an hour due to staff shortages.

A West Ham fan heading for his side’s Europa League second leg tie against Lyon said there was “carnage” at the station.

Dover-Calais sailings by P&O Ferries are also suspended, with large queues of lorries forming on roads approaching the Port of Dover.

A spokesperson for the company said: “We apologise unreservedly to all customers whose scheduled journeys with us between Dover and Calais have been cancelled while we are unable to sail.

“It is only fair and right that we make alternative arrangements for those customers, which include transferring them on to our Hull-Europoort service to Rotterdam, or booking them on to services with Brittany Ferries between Portsmouth and Caen.”

It said this would come at no extra cost for customers, with mileage expenses reimbursed and a 25% discount on the original fee.