A warm and sunny May bank holiday weekend is expected to bring a million more drivers out on the roads than last year, with the part-closure of Great Britain’s main rail line on Sunday and Monday likely to aggravate the situation.
Congestion is set to peak with the temperatures on Friday afternoon, when getaway drives and commuter traffic coincide.
About 17m leisure journeys by car are expected between Friday and Monday, a million more than the same bank holiday in 2024, according to the RAC motoring organisation, despite Easter weekend falling only two weeks ago this year.
Its research found most drivers were planning to hit the roads on Friday afternoon and Saturday.
According to Met Office forecasts, the hottest start to May is set to cool as the weekend goes on but stay generally dry over most of Britain, with plenty of sun on Saturday.
Rod Dennis, an RAC spokesperson, said: “When the sun makes a welcome appearance and the heat hangs on, that is likely to boost the number of people on the road. Even if the temperature dips, the days are long and it’s not a bank holiday washout.”
Fuel prices have also dropped to a near-four-year low, with the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts just over 134p – the cheapest price since July 2021.
The transport analytics company Inrix forecast that the worst traffic would be during late afternoon and early evening on Friday, with congestion peaking between 11am and 3pm on other days.
The M5 southbound on the popular holiday route between Bristol and the south-west is expected to experience delays of up to 40 minutes from 7pm. Similar hold-ups will come earlier on the M25.
Rail passengers may have a smoother getaway – but could struggle to get back later in the weekend with the closure of the west coast main line.
Reduced services will run on Saturday on the route used by Avanti and others for intercity trains from the capital to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow – and no trains at all will run in or out of London Euston on the line on Sunday and Monday.
The track will be closed south of Milton Keynes for renewal, embankment repairs and drainage works. Buses will also replace trains on the line north of Carlisle to Glasgow, and between Crewe and Preston.
Elsewhere, Southeastern trains will not reach London Victoria on Saturday or Sunday, with services stopping and starting at London Bridge or Cannon Street.
There will also be no services between Cambridge and Audley End between Saturday and Monday.
Brian Paynter, Network Rail’s capital delivery head of track, said: “We know some of this will be disruptive, but bank holidays remain the least busy time for carrying out complex upgrades.”
He said people should plan ahead and recommended that those who would normally used Euston should travel either side of the bank holiday weekend if possible.
Airports are set to be busier than the Easter weekend, with 11,746 flights scheduled to depart from UK airports, carrying potentially more than 2 million passengers. The numbers continue to climb but are still lower than before the coronavirus pandemic, according to the analytics company Cirium, with the most flights heading to Dublin, Amsterdam, Palma, Málaga and Alicante.
