The big one Easter The escape could see the travelers captured road delays, ferry, rail and air. In a normal year, there would be a gap between most school breaks and the long weekend. But with Easter falling so soon the two are combined. The term ends in many schools on Thursday 28 March, putting extra pressure on transport.
Some airports and airlines are predicting record numbers for the spell between Good Friday and Easter Monday. The slopes of Geneva will be very busy with winter sports fans, while Malaga, Alicante, Faro and Tenerife are the main spring sun holiday destinations.
Between city breaks, AmsterdamBarcelona, Dublin, Paris and Rome are the most popular. DubaiOrlando and New York are the main long-haul destinations.
Afterwards chaos in the Port of Dover during the corresponding weekend last yearbus passengers and holiday motorists can look forward to an easier journey despite the tough French border passport checks that the UK has demanded after the vote to leave the EU.
Back home, highway experts are warning that journeys on some stretches of the highway could take twice as long as normal.
Rail travel could see some passenger records broken, with Eurostar selling five per cent more tickets than last Easter – although the London-Disneyland Paris route was scrapped last June due to Brexit.
Domestic train journeys will be hampered by widespread engineering work, including on the West Coast Main Line linking London Euston with the West Midlands, north-west England and southern Scotland.
Once it starts in April, the train drivers belonging to the aslef the union will come down with a series of other strikes on both trains and the London Underground.
These are the key pressure points through the Easter holidays, starting with the airports.
When and where will the airport crowd build?
Two million British travelers are expected to fly away over the Easter weekend. During the four-day break, departing passengers are likely to outnumber arrivals as families head abroad.
Holy Thursday (March 28) will be busier than normal due to business travelers completing trips and some families taking advantage of the (slightly) lower prices to get away as the school holidays begin.
Good Friday (March 29) should be quieter, with fewer business passengers.
Easter Saturday (March 30) will be busier as the normal Saturday ski crowd is augmented by families heading to sunny destinations.
Easter Sunday (March 31) is expected to be the busiest of the holidays at Bristol Airport, with 30,000 passengers expected.
Easter Monday (April 1) can lead to long queues at passport control coming into the UK as travelers return from long weekends.
Friday, April 5 is the busiest day of the holiday at Luton Airport, with passengers passing through at an average rate of 38 per minute.
Sunday, April 7 to Gatwick is expected to be busier in general, and at departures from Southampton.
How are the boats doing?
Longer crossings on the Irish Sea, the English Channel and the North Sea should run smoothly. Brittany Ferries, which sails from Channel ports to France and Spain, says Maundy Thursday is its busiest day, and predicts “glorious weather and happy passengers”.
The key problem is the Port of Doverwhere border controls are “juxtaposed” – with French border staff now required to scrutinize and stamp every British passport before the boats go to Calais and Dunkirk.
At Easter 2023, long lines built with bus passengers particularly affected. The port has established a Coach Processing Facility in Dover’s Western Docks which will be in use on the key high pressure dates of Thursday 28 March and Saturday 30 March. Passengers are processed away from the main port; Once the formalities are over, the coach takes you to the Eastern Docks for a quick passport control.
What is the outlook for motorists?
Alice Simpson of RAC Breakdown has warned of ‘carmageddon’ for holidaymakers. Maundy Thursday will be tough, especially between 2pm and 7pm. The western half of the M25between the M23 to Gatwick and the M1 to the North, it is the road to avoid.
Leisure traffic will peak, says the RAC, between 11am and 3pm on Good Friday. That day, 2.68 million leisure trips are expected. The longest jams are expected to be on the M5 southbound between Bristol and Taunton and the M3 between the M25 and the south coast.
Easter Saturday and Sunday are the second busiest with 2.34 million trips each.
For holidaymakers returning home on Friday April 5, the trouble spots to avoid are the M5 northbound between Taunton and Bristol and the M55 from Blackpool to Preston.
As always, starting a long journey either very early or waiting until the evening will probably help to avoid the worst jams.
What happens on the railways?
First, good news: the West Highland Line in Scotland has reopened on schedule after nine days of work on Rannoch Viaduct.
But over the Easter weekend, Network Rail will close some key stretches of lines. The most disruptive is the four-day closure, from Friday to Monday, of the main West Coast line between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central. A new track will be installed near the Kensal Green tunnel and a busy junction just south of Milton Keynes will be replaced.
Delay reaction: Network Rail staff outside London Euston
(NetworkRail)
East Midlands Railway, which runs between London St Pancras and Sheffield, will be the diversion route of choice for many travellers. The company warns that its services will be “extremely busy over the Easter weekend”.
An alternative diversion line is the Chiltern route from London Marylebone to Birmingham. Caledonian Sleeper trains will run to and from London King’s Cross.
Once again, the Greater Anglia main line from London Liverpool Street to Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich is disrupted, along with the line to Southend Victoria. Rail replacement nozzles will run.
The main trans-Pennine road is closed in Huddersfield from Good Friday to Sunday April 7, disrupting a wide range of lines.
Then, the last round of industrial action by train drivers belonging to the Aslef union will be ongoing.
In a long and bitter dispute over wages and labor agreements, which began in the summer of 2022, they plan to stop thousands of trains on April 5, 6 and 8. A series of “rollers” is disrupting services on the 14 railway companies in England that are controlled by the British government and represented by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG).
Members will also refuse to work their remaining days from Thursday 4th to Saturday 6th April and from Monday 8th to Tuesday 9th April. Since many rail companies depend on drivers working overtime, hundreds – possibly thousands – of trains will be cancelled.
These are the likely service patterns based on previous experience.
Friday, April 5
The four train operators affected by the strike – Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains and CrossCountry – say they are currently assessing the impact on their services, but past experience indicates they will cancel all services.
Saturday, April 6
Chiltern is the first operator to confirm that it will not be running trains. Northern and TransPennine Express are also likely to cancel all services.
GWR and LNER will run a skeleton service on their core intercity lines between 7am and 7pm.
Monday, April 8
C2C, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Thameslink and Southeastern are likely to cancel all services.
Southern will run a shuttle service between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport.
Greater Anglia runs to and from London Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport, Southend, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich.
The South Western Railway will run between London Waterloo, Woking and Guildford, with further suburban services likely.
