Easter Carmageddon: Over two million drivers to hit the road on Good Friday after Storm Nelson travel chaos
29 March 2024, 00:45 | Updated: 29 March 2024, 01:10
Around 2.6 million car journeys are expected to be made on Good Friday as Brits take to the road for the bank holiday weekend.
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Brits have been warned journeys will take twice as long as usual as the bank holiday coincides with the start of a two-week holiday for schools.
It comes after the first drivers to depart on their Easter getaways were hit by travel chaos on Thursday after Storm Nelson arrived with gusts of 50mph.
A Met Office yellow weather warning for wind covering London and the South East, the South West and east of England is set to run throughout Friday.
Good Friday is set to be a day of sunshine and blustery scattered showers, coming after unsettled conditions which saw hailstones hit parts of Cornwall.
The Met Office yellow weather warning for wind suggests that some exposed coastal spots may experience gusts of 60 to 70mph, with large waves also likely.
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Drivers have been advised to set off as early as possible or wait until later in the day to make their Good Friday journeys, as peak times are expected to hit between 11am and 3pm.
The RAC and transport analysis company Inrix commissioned a survey which suggested 2.6 million leisure journeys by car will be made on the bank holiday.
One of the busiest roads will be the western section of the M25 between the M23 for Gatwick Airport and the M1 for Hertfordshire, where journey times will double from two to four hours on average.
Network Rail urged train passengers to check their journey details before they travel because some major routes will be closed due to engineering work.
The West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Milton Keynes will be shut for four days from Good Friday.
There will also be disruption in the areas around Glasgow and Huddersfield.
The Port of Dover is also expected to experience heavy traffic as thousands of Brits head to France. This will be made more severe due to increased security checks in France following last week's terrorist attack in Moscow.
More than 14 million journeys are expected to take place over the course of the four-day weekend.
Deputy chief meteorologist Dan Harris said of the upcoming weather: "The weather is expected to gradually improve following the widely unsettled spell of the past few days, with a fairly typical mix of spring-like weather across the UK.
"There will be some sunshine, and it will feel increasingly warm for most as the winds become lighter.
"However, the west and especially south west is likely to see passing showers too, which could be quite heavy and frequent at times.
"Eastern coastal districts are also likely to feel increasingly cold as an onshore breeze develops, threatening persistent low cloud in some areas too."
