Surge in traffic due to strike

THE first day of the rail strikes saw a surge in traffic on Cardiff’s roads, a tech firm said yesterday.

Unsurprisingly, long queues on the roads of cities across the UK were reported as many switched from trains to cars.

And congestion levels were said to be significantly higher in the Welsh capital yesterday, compared to last Tuesday.

Location technology firm TomTom said congestion levels at 11am were higher than at the same time last week in a number of urban areas.

They include London (from 38% on June 14 to 51% yesterday), Cardiff (from 24% to 29%), Liverpool (from 24% to 30%), Manchester (from 27% to 34%) and Newcastle (from 18% to 20%). The figures represent the proportion of additional time required for journeys compared with free-flow conditions.

The M4 was also busy as strikes saw more commuters take to the road. The congestion was exacerbated by an incident involving an overturned lorry just off the M4, on the A48 Tredegar Park roundabout between Newport and Cardiff.

Police, fire, traffic officers and paramedics all attended the scene at around 8.10am yesterday. Emergency crews said one person was hospitalised following the incident, which blocked one lane of the A48.

Elsewhere, there were also long queues on outer London sections of the M1, M4, A4 and A40.

AA president Edmund King said there were also“traffic hotspots” on the M25 in the south-east of England, and on roads near Manchester, Leeds and west of Glasgow.

The firm’s breakdown recovery workers have been “busier than normal but not dramatically”, he said.

“Given good notice of the strike, many people have planned ahead and either changed their plans or are working from home.”