Britain’s roads and runways will take a festive pounding on Friday as traffic peaks before Christmas and record numbers head to the skies.
Motoring organisations are forecasting exceptionally busy roads, with getaways expected to peak on Saturday and Christmas Eve. However, they say the mix of commuter travel, shopping trips and early departures will make Friday the most congested day.
Flights from UK airports are also expected to peak on Friday, in what the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says will be the busiest Christmas season for air travel on record.
According to the AA, drivers will be sharing the roads with 24.4 million other cars on Friday. The organisation said 72% of its members planned to drive that day for work or leisure, and it urged motorists to plan ahead and allow extra time for journeys. Shaun Jones, an AA mechanic and spokesperson, said: “It’s beginning to look a lot like traffic.”
The RAC’s survey suggests most drivers heading away for a full Christmas break will travel either the following day or on 24 December, with more than 4 million leisure journeys by car forecast on each day.
The organisation said it was expecting the busiest getaway period since its records began.
Likely locations for traffic jams include: the M25 clockwise on the west of London; the M6 northbound around Birmingham; the M1 northbound past Leicester; and most of the M60 clockwise.
Road congestion may be exacerbated by rail engineering works later in the holiday, closing key lines and stations.
Train passengers travelling over Christmas and into the new Year have been advised to plan ahead as engineering works could lead to longer delays, with some journeys being completed on rail replacement buses.
Works on sections of the West Coast main line will disrupt and significantly delay intercity journeys between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland. Rail replacement buses will operate between Milton Keynes and Rugby, while some passengers may need to divert via Sheffield on the Midland main line.
The works will affect journeys to and from London Euston from 27 December to 4 January, as well as services between Scotland and north-west England from 1-14 January.
Further works will follow the Christmas rail closure, with no trains running between Leeds and York until 2 January, or between Cambridge and Stansted airport until 5 January.
London Waterloo, one of the UK’s busiest stations, will stay closed until 28 December and run fewer trains until 4 January, while Liverpool Street will be closed to mainline trains until New Year’s Day.
No trains will run on the Dunbartonshire line from Glasgow Queen Street to Crianlarich until 2 January.
Network Rail said about 95% of Britain’s network would be unaffected by engineering work.
National Express, the UK’s largest scheduled coach operator, said it was adding 45,000 seats over the holiday period, including more than 10,000 between the north-west and London, to meet increased demand as engineering works took place.
The CAA said about 460,000 people were expected to depart from UK airports on Friday, with about 3 million outbound passengers forecast over the peak festive period. About 160,000 passengers are due to fly on Christmas Day – 13% more than last year and 72% higher than in 2015. Total passenger numbers for December are forecast to exceed the record 22 million in 2024.
The Port of Dover estimates that nearly 30,000 cars will embark on outbound sailings during the festive period, with traffic peaking between 6am and 1pm from Friday to Sunday.
