Don’t bank on a bright weekend

MILLIONS of Britons planning Bank Holiday getaways face the all-too familiar mix of bad weather, horrendous jams and disruption on the trains.

While southern areas are expected to see the best of the sunshine over the weekend, the North and Scotland could experience heavy rain.

As families took to the roads yesterday, motoring organisations warned journeys in the South and South-West were due to take 50 per cent longer than normal.

During early evening, there was gridlock on sections of the M1 in the East Midlands, the M6 through north-west England and the A1 through South Yorkshire.

More traffic delays are likely today when up to three million motorists make leisure trips, the RAC said. Over the whole weekend, the motoring organisation predicts 16 million motorists are planning journeys between yesterday and Monday.

Aviation analytics company Cirium said yesterday was the busiest day of the year so far for UK airports, with more than 3,000 departures. A total of 8,486 flights are scheduled to depart between today and Monday, equating to more than 1.5 million seats.

On the railways, engineering work is due to bring major disruption to the West Coast Main Line, which is among routes hit by 487 planned engineering projects between today and Monday.

The most significant disruption will occur tomorrow when no trains will run between London Euston and Milton Keynes, or between Glasgow and England.

Services will also be affected by work in Cambridge, Coventry and Liverpool.

Disruption will be compounded when an overtime ban begins for train drivers at 16 operators on Monday, ahead of three oneday strikes called by Aslef between Tuesday and Thursday.

The Midlands, East Anglia and southern Wales are forecast to experience the sunniest spells and warmest temperatures of up to 20C (68F) tomorrow and Monday – not quite beating the 23.4C (74.1F) recorded in Santon Downham in Suffolk on Thursday.

There is also a chance of longer spells of rain developing in parts of the South.