Bank holiday weekend travel chaos predicted for UK holidaymakers

Rail strike will add to problems caused by engineering works

The busiest August bank holiday in history will bring delays and disruption for many thousands of travellers in the skies and on the roads and rails.

Research from The Independent indicates that airports at both Manchester and Luton will have the busiest day of the summer on Friday 24 August. Manchester airport is expecting 111,400 passengers to pass through, with Luton predicting 65,000.

The end of the bank holiday weekend will see Birmingham airport reach its highest arrival numbers (25,399) and highest total number (42,428). Liverpool John Lennon airport also expects the bank holiday weekend to be the busiest of the year. A 36-hour strike has been called by members of GMB in a pay dispute. It will begin at 7pm on Thursday and end at 7am on Saturday.

Liverpool will be among the major destinations on the Northern Rail network set to be affected by a strike on Saturday by members of the RMT union. They are involved in a long-running dispute over the role of guards.

The train operator says it expects to operate fewer than three in 10 trains, “with very few running before 9am and after 6pm”.

In London, Euston station will be closed complete from Saturday morning to Monday evening for planned engineering work in the North Wembley area.

Virgin Trains, the long-distance operator from London Euston to the West Midlands, northwest England, North Wales and Scotland, is urging passengers: “We highly recommend that you avoid travelling on these dates unless absolutely necessary.”

The line between Birmingham International and Coventry will also be closed.

In Kent, engineering work is taking place between Sevenoaks and Tonbridge, closing all lines. Replacement buses will run.

From the start of the bank holiday weekend, Saturday 25 August, the Peak District gateway station of Matlock will be cut off from the rest of the nation by rail for six weeks.

On the roads, according to a survey of drivers’ travel intentions conducted by the RAC and INRIX, Friday and Saturday are likely to be the busiest days on the road for leisure trips. Around 3.6 million cars are expected to be making journeys on both days.

Severe jams are expected on the M5 between junctions 1 and 4 from 9.30am to 2pm on Friday, with travel times an hour longer than usual.

RAC traffic spokesperson Rod Dennis warned that the biggest problems will be further southwest: “There are plenty of known hotspots on the motorway network but probably the single biggest one in the summer months is the Almondsbury interchange at Bristol, right by the RAC building, where the M5 and the M4 meet.

“As tens of thousands of drivers head for Devon and Cornwall the coming-together of traffic leads to regular tailbacks every Friday afternoon.

“Add a bank holiday and some sunshine into the mix and it’s the perfect recipe for a long wait on the motorway.”