Good Friday for traffic – but queues lie ahead
MOTORISTS had a relatively good start to the bank holiday weekend as traffic flowed well in Wales on Good Friday.
However, the RAC predicts that it will peak tomorrow.
While there were isolated incidents causing some issues, the delays in Wales were minor.
However, a tanker fire saw the M4 in Bath closed in both directions. Traffic was at a standstill for a number of hours and motorists were asked to stay in their cars while the fire was dealt with.
RAC Traffic Watch spokesman Rod Dennis explained that this year’s Easter traffic trends could be a little different than usual due to the timing of the school holidays.
He said: “Things are a little different this year to last – with many schools having already broken up, a lot of traffic on Easter Sunday in particular will likely be families returning from trips.
“More than three million leisure trips will take place on Easter Monday, perhaps as more people head back home for the start of the working week – although with school holidays continuing in some parts of the country, the roads remain busy with a total of nine million leisure trips planned through to Sunday, April 23.”
It is predicted that 12.8 million car journeys will take place over the whole Easter period with 3.75 million cars on the road tomorrow.
Mr Dennis said: “It is likely the usual main road arteries will suffer the consequences of lots of us trying to get away for the double bank holiday weekend by car.
“Our advice, if you can, is to head off early to beat other travellers, but to expect some jams on major routes.”
Stena Line, which operates from Holyhead, said almost 90,000 people and 21,000 vehicles would be travelling with it over the Easter weekend.
There were disruptions for train passengers as Network Rail carried out more than 200 engineering projects.
Trains to London, Manchester, Bath, Edinburgh and Glasgow were among those affected.
Network Rail said Easter was a quieter time to carry out the works as fewer passengers traditionally travel.
Travel trade organisation Abta predicted Good Friday would see two million British holidaymakers heading overseas with Spain the favourite destination.
Cardiff Airport said its most popular destination was Amsterdam. It predicted 15,000 passengers travelling through the airport over the Easter break.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “Whilst many families may have already begun their Easter break, the Easter weekend is always a busy time of year for the travel industry with many holidaymakers taking advantage of the bank holidays to grab some much-needed sunshine or a trip to one of the world’s great cities.
“The roads will be busy, so we would recommend leaving a little extra time to get to your port of departure and if using public transport, to check in advance for engineering works.”
For those staying closer to home the weather is set to make it a pleasant, if not baking, Easter weekend.
Today will be a cloudy day with temperatures of 12C in Cardiff, the weather there will turn cloudier tomorrow.
In the north, Caernarfon will see a cloudy day today with rain forecast tomorrow.
Aberystwyth will see a fair bank holiday weekend with cloudy days both today and tomorrow but sunny spells expected on Monday.