Fears that rail strike will lead to road chaos

ROADWORKS ARE being suspended for almost a week amid fears that a threatened national rail strike will clog up the country’s motorways and other routes.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association at Network Rail are set to stage a 24-hour walkout from 5pm on Bank Holiday Monday in a row over pay.

Talks were resuming today at the conciliation service Acas in a bid to resolve the dispute, but Highways England has announced an extension to the removal of roadworks in case the action goes ahead.

Travellers are expected to switch from rail to road over the weekend if there is a strike, leading to much heavier traffic than normal for a bank holiday weekend.

Roadworks are usually reinstated on the Tuesday after a bank holiday break, but Highways England is not planning to reinstate them until 6am on Thursday May 28.

Amost 400 lane-miles of roadworks on motorways and A roads will be removed or suspended by 6am on Friday.

Simon Sheldon-Wilson, director of customer operations at Highways England, said: “We are working with Network Rail and others to manage the impact of any industrial action on our customers. Motorways and major routes are likely to be even busier than usual if the planned industrial action goes ahead.”