The last bank holiday weekend until Christmas is seeing wide-ranging travel chaos disruption. Many travellers will find their journeys made more challenging by bad weather, planned engineering work on the railways and the sheer volume of traffic on the roads. As Storm Lilian swept in on Friday, fallen trees blocked several rail lines in Wales, western England, the West Midlands and northwest England– including on the key West Coast main line between Stafford and Crewe and between Macclesfield and Stockport.
Many trains between Manchester city centre and the airport are cancelled or delayed. The intercity link between Birmingham and Bristol is also blocked by a fallen tree. Commuters in the London area face long delays due to a broken-down train on the Thameslink north-south line through the city centre.
Over the weekend three key intercity lines to and from London will be hit by closures and diversions due to Network Rail projects. Engineers will be working on both the East and West Coast main lines, as well as the Great Western route through the Severn Tunnel. In addition, the RAC predicts heavier bank holiday traffic than at any time since it started recording data in 2015.
Delays are expected on roads serving coastal resorts and on routes for the Leeds and Reading music festivals. Friday 23 August is expected to be the busiest day of the year so far for UK departures. Once the bank holiday weekend is over, strikes will resume.
Train drivers belonging to the Aslef union a.