UK double bank holiday travels get under way

Travel plans are getting under way as Britain begins a run of two double bank holiday weekends.

Rail works will affect some routes, and major motorways - including a now fully reopened M1 - are expected to become very busy from Thursday lunchtime on.

About 18m people are expected to use their cars but high fuel prices will mean shorter trips, predicted the AA.

For many people, especially in England and Wales, the warm weather is set to continue through the Easter weekend.

This year's late Easter and the royal wedding, on 29 April, have resulted in some workers only having to take only three days' leave off next week to get an 11-day break.

But BBC transport correspondent Richard Scott said that with Easter coming at the end of the school holidays, those with children were likely to have already gone away and be returning this weekend.

He said authorities at London's Heathrow airport were expecting 214,000 people on Thursday, with more than 1m people planning to fly over the entire Easter break.

The current top destinations are New York, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong and Amsterdam, according to Nick Cullen, chief operating officer for BAA at Heathrow.

On the roads, a seven-mile stretch of the M1 in north London - which was affected by a fire in a scrapyard last week - has now fully reopened.

All three lanes in both directions between junctions 1 and 4 are open. However a 50mph speed limit is in place on a bridge which was damaged by the fire.

AA president Edmund King said motorists setting off for the Easter break would feel the squeeze of soaring fuel costs, with average pump prices now more than 135p a litre for petrol and almost 142p for diesel.

He said in an AA/Populus survey of 13,000 people, 85% said they were going to stay in the UK this weekend.

 
AA president
 "We also found that about 10m are going to be going away by car over the Easter weekend. When you couple that with the approximately 8m who perhaps will be doing day trips to beaches, to national parks, to shopping centres then I think we are going to have a pretty busy weekend on the roads," he said.

The AA said drivers had told them they would be travelling shorter distances than last year, because of fuel costs.

Mr King said: "For every 100 miles you travel by car it costs you £2 more than it did last year due to the high cost of diesel and unleaded [fuel]. It'll cost you about £10 more just to fill up."

The AA reported some congestion after an accident on Thursday morning on the M3 westbound near Winchester, and also on the M4 near Heathrow.

Said Mr King: "After about 1pm today [Thursday] you'll have people sneaking off early from work and hitting those usual suspects - the M1, M3, M4, M5, M6, A303 to the west, the M90 in Scotland."

He said anyone who wanted to avoid congestion might consider Scotland, where the AA survey suggested 61% of residents would be staying at home for Easter.

Engineering works
 
Meanwhile while rail engineering work will affect some travellers this weekend, Network Rail said 18% more trains would run compared to last Easter.

Among the routes affected will be sections of the West Coast Main Line, where buses will replace trains.

 
BBC weather forecaster
 Some disruption is forecast for Great Western line trains, and engineering work is due to hit services in Hampshire, Kent and East Anglia. Work is also being carried out on the Great Eastern line out of London's Liverpool Street station.

Buses will replace trains on the Stansted Express London to Stansted airport service until noon on Easter Sunday.

Network Rail (NR) said that during the Easter and May Day bank holiday weekends, engineers would be laying new track, repairing bridges, updating signalling systems and overhead power lines, and improving stations.

But it said 90% of the rail network would run as normal.

National Express said its busiest day for coach travel over the period of the two bank holidays would be Easter Monday.

For those remaining in the UK this week's warm sunshine is set to continue.

BBC weather forecaster Carol Kirkwood said: "For much of England and Wales in particular it is going to be lovely, bar a few showers. Scotland and Northern Ireland will be seeing a little bit more in the way of wet weather."

The top temperature forecast for Thursday is in London, at 26C. Wednesday's temperatures in the city were the warmest of the year so far, with 26.5C recorded. BBC