‘Devon dash’ drivers snared in 20-mile queues

Bank holiday congestion and Storm Nelson results in tailbacks and disruption to ferry and rail services

WHAT could be more British than spending the first day of the long weekend in a motorway queue? For drivers doing the “Devon dash” down to the South West, their Good Friday journey proved to be something of a trial.

Drivers were caught in 20-mile queues on the M4 and M5 interchange near Bristol thanks to a broken-down lorry, which added 45 minutes onto journey times.

Meanwhile, the western side of the M25 was described as a “lot worse than normal”, with 40-minute queues for those heading south west from London.

The RAC said motorists heading south were behind much of the congestion after forecasters predicted sunnier spells there over the next few days.

Simon Williams, the RAC spokesman, said: “Everyone’s heading to Devon and Cornwall, that’s the attraction, and there’s been a bit of better weather. It’s causing horrendous queues.”

It was also busy on the top-end of the M20, with congestion heading into Folkestone. The seaside town and Dover were suffering large amounts of traffic as people flocked to the port to board ferries to France but high winds on the Channel caused by Storm Nelson led to delayed departures and long wait times.

DFDS, a ferry company, reported its services at Dover were running with delays “due to strong winds in the Channel”. Twenty thousand cars are expected to travel through the Port of Dover between Thursday and Easter Monday.

The ferry firm Stena Line said bookings on Irish Sea routes are up 115 per cent on an average weekend at this time of year and have increased by 26 per cent on Easter weekend 2023.

Great Western Railways closed a number of lines on Thursday owing to flooding, with all lines between Westbury and Swindon shut and the main line from Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads also closed.

Network Rail urged train passengers to check their journey details before they travel because some major routes will be closed for engineering work.

The West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Milton Keynes will be shut until Tuesday, with disruption also around Glasgow and Huddersfield.

Storm Nelson’s appearance comes at one of the busiest weekends for travel.

VisitEngland, the tourist board, said around 11 million people in the UK are planning an overnight Easter trip, generating an estimated £3.2 billion for the economy. The most popular foreign destinations include Turkey, Dubai and the Canary Islands and Dublin.

Chris Woodroofe, managing director of Manchester airport, said: “It’s exciting that record numbers of people will be taking off from here this Easter: 320,000 people will travel (through the airport) over the bank holiday weekend - that’s up 7 per cent on April 2023.”

Glasgow predicts more than 90,000 passengers over the four days while Birmingham airport said it expects a 27.2 per cent increase in departures compared to last year over the full Easter period.

But while the journey might be more treacherous than many would have hoped, the slow-moving traffic might be worth it as the weather is expected to clear up and lead to a fairly pleasant weekend.

Damp and blustery weather early on Good Friday is expected to give way to nicer weather over the rest of the weekend, with the Met Office expecting “a fairly decent” weekend.

The South West has been sodden throughout March, data shows, with the area soaked in twice the average rainfall for this time of year.

Dan Stroud, a Met Office spokesman, said: “Some areas have seen a significant amount of rain and are highly saturated.” With semi-dry weather on the way, concerns of flooding should be eased as the sodden ground starts to dry out.