Travel chaos for Bank Holiday revellers heading home from weekend getaways

This has – and will continue to be – a pretty common sight over the Bank Holidays (Picture: Oliver Quartly/Story Picture Agency/REX/Shutterstock)

Those hoping to make the most of the Bank Holiday sunshine are facing rail and road delays – with even more after Monday.

Car journeys 50% longer than usual and the most feared phrase in the English language, ‘planned engineering works’, are going to make post-holiday blues even worse.

Network Rail currently lists dozens of disruptions and timetable changes as well as planned engineering works.

These include rail replacement buses and limited train services, with 487 planned projects taking place yesterday alone.

Of all the ‘major engineering work’ taking place this weekend, the private company that manages Britain’s railway system added: ‘During the Early May bank holiday weekend, major engineering work will be taking place between Milton Keynes Central and London Euston.

‘There will be no trains between these stations today, Sunday 5 May, and an amended service will operate during the rest of the weekend.

Some major train routes will be delayed today (Picture: PA)

Which train companies are affected by the strike action?

• Tuesday May 7: c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR’s Great Northern, Thameslink and Southern (including Gatwick Express), Southeastern, South Western Railway.
• Wednesday May 8: Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern Railway, Chiltern, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, GWR and West Midlands Trains.
• Thursday May 9: LNER, Northern, and TransPennine Express.

‘There will also be key work taking place in the Cambridge area, at Liverpool, and at Birmingham International/Coventry.’

Network Rail’s system operator director Anit Chandarana added: ‘We know people want to travel by train and not by replacement bus.

‘We do our best to fit as much work as we can into these closures to minimise the impact on passengers and freight customers.’

And it’s not just trains which will see delays. Drivers have been warned of a ‘crescendo of cars’ that will clog up parts of the North West, East Anglia and South West as people head out on bank holiday getaways.

The RAC said it expects 16 million motorists to hit the road between Friday and Monday. While the travel analysis firm Inrix warns journeys on most South and South West routes will take 50% longer than usual.

Those keen to avoid the standstill should travel 9am and after 5pm.

Thankfully, however, the National Highways says there are no ‘priority alerts’ which could spell delays for drivers today.

But the delays don’t end here. Aslef, a trade union which represents drivers and other train-operating staff, is staging strikes this month.

Sixteen train companies will see strike action from Tuesday to Thursday, meaning some stations will have next to no service.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Get your need-to-know latest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more by signing up to Metro’s News Updates newsletter