A CHAOTIC Bank Holiday getaway is predicted this weekend with speed restrictions on the busiest motorway stretches, disruption on key rail routes and possible flight cancellations.
Road closures, 40mph speed limits and diversions on major train lines will combine to create a headache for travellers. Millions of people are expected to make the most of expcted soaring temperatures and a return of sunshine on Saturday by setting off on extended weekend breaks.
Around 18 million drivers will head for the coast, theme parks, shopping centres and airports, which will handle two million flights between tomorrow and Monday.
But the Highways Agency has decided to close link roads to the M6 near Birmingham and not to suspend a 40mph speed limit on the M25 near Heathrow. Other restrictions will remain in place on the M1, M2, M5 and M6.
While motoring groups warned of severe delays on many motorways, Network Rail announced important engineering work on main routes. Diversions and bus replacement services will be used on many lines.
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Extensive work is being carried out on the West Coast Main Line, preventing trains from terminating at London’s Euston Station between Saturday and Monday. The route will also be closed from Hemel Hempstead to Lichfield and between Manchester and Stockport. Those wishing to travel between London, Birmingham and Manchester will have to use alternative rail companies’ services or bus replacements.
Thousands of revellers with tickets for this weekend’s Reading Festival will also face disrupted journeys. The Great Western main line will shut between Slough and Reading for points renewal work.
A Network Rail spokesman said that one million fewer passengers used the railway over a Bank Holiday than a normal weekend. He said: “We are continuing our task of rebuilding the railway as we carry out a large amount of work this Bank Holiday.
“These windows of opportunity are essential to the continued maintenance and renewal needed on the nation’s rail infrastructure.”
On the roads, blackspots and lengthy tailbacks are expected on routes to Wales and the West Country, Heathrow, Gatwick and beaches in East Anglia, Kent and Essex. Heavy traffic is also predicted on roads to South coast cross-Channel ports, safari parks and the Lake District and northern seaside resorts.
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Long traffic queues are expected at major shopping centres with consumers withdrawing around £1 billion from cash machines.
Barclays said that shoppers would take out nearly £4,000 a second from 52,000 ATMs.Those living in the South East and Scotland are likely to withdraw the most money with people in Wales and East Anglia taking out the least.
The top ten requested maps from the AA’s route planner service for this weekend are Alton Towers, Windsor Castle, Old Trafford football stadium, The Trafford, Meadowhall and Bluewater shopping centres, Thorpe Park, Longleat Safari Park, Chessington World of Adventures and Wembley Arena.
But the organisation said that problems experienced by motorists are exacerbated by their inability to see obscured road signs while driving in unfamiliar areas.
An AA spokesman said: “There almost seems to be an acceptance in some local authorities that this is an annual nuisance which we have to put up with.
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“The clarity of road signs is essential for safety, route guidance and the effective enforcement of road traffic law. It is ludicrous for speed enforcement to take place when the legally required signs are invisible.”
The AA expects to deal with around 60,000 callouts over the Bank Holiday weekend, many of which could be avoided with better maintenance of vehicles.
Battery failure and tyre failure were the top causes of breakdowns last summer.
But more unusual problems with which the AA has recently dealt include rescuing a hamster from behind a car’s gearbox, emptying a radiator of porridge and coaxing a cornsnake from a dashboard using a hairdryer.
Meanwhile, the RAC gave warning that many drivers are risking their lives by stopping unnecessarily on the hard shoulders of motorways.
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A spokesman said: “This summer RAC patrols have seen a marked increase in the number of drivers, putting themselves and others at risk by pulling on to the hard shoulder to use their mobile phone, check a map, retrieve something from the car boot or even to go to the toilet. Around 200 people are killed or injured on the side of Britain’s motorways and dual carriageways every year.”
The Highways Agency said that it would lift as many roadworks as possible this weekend. It has suspended more than 20 sets, on the M25, M27, M4 and M61.
But Eurostar staff are due to strike on Saturday at Waterloo and Ashford in Kent, in an RMT union dispute over pay and grading.
Showers and unpredictable weather will continue in northern areas this weekend although sunshine and temperatures of 20C (68F) are forecast for southern parts.
The let-up in the rain will be good news for ET, a newly hatched King Penguin who has sheltered from recent downpours under an umbrella in his enclosure. The chick, which is the first King Penguin born at Birdland in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, is too young to develop oils to protect his feathers.
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The dismal weather has swept two new species of moths to Britain for the first time since records began 200 years ago. Eublemma purpurina and godonella aestimaria normally live in the Mediterranean and Balkans. They have both been seen throughout southern England.
The rain, however, has proved disastrous for garden butterflies, with commonplace species at their lowest numbers for a decade.