Drivers have been warned that if they head out this weekend they will be faced with the busiest August bank holiday on the roads since for almost a decade. An estimated 19.2 million leisure trips by car are expected to be made between Friday and Monday, says the RAC .
This is the highest figure since the company began recording data in 2015. This comes at the same time that three key intercity rail lines will be interrupted for Network Rail engineering projects , with journeys on the East Coast main line from the capital to Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland slower and more complicated. Saturday (24 August) is set to be the busiest on the roads, with 3.
7 million getaways planned, slightly ahead of the 3 million journeys planned every day on Friday (3.2 million), Sunday (3.1 million) and Bank Holiday Monday (3 million).
The RAC also believes that a huge number of motorists are still undecided about when they will be heading out over the long weekend, which could add an additional 6.2 million trips into the mix. Transport analytics specialists Inrix expect delays to last all day on both Friday and Saturday, with the worst times to travel between 10am and 6pm on Friday and 10am and 1pm on Saturday.
Drivers are advised to make journeys on Friday evening after 6pm when the worst of the commuter traffic is over, or after 2pm on Saturday following the lunchtime rush. Delays are expected on roads serving coastal resorts and on routes for Leeds and Reading music festivals. Traf.