Drivers have been warned of Christmas traffic mayhem as one of the busiest seasons on Britain’s roads is around the corner.
Many are busy making festive travel arrangements, including how to best dodge traffic hotspots and rail disruption.
Motorists have been urged to avoid travelling during the peak festive getaway – unless they want to take on the possible monster queues as millions of trips are expected on major motorways like the M25, M3 and M53.
The UK road network will be teeming with a record 29 million trips before Christmas Day, followed by another wave of return journeys.
Here is a roundup of the best and worst times to travel, and where Christmas congestion is likely to be the worst.
Next weekend will be the busiest time for travel when around 14.3 million journeys are expected during a single weekend, according to estimates by the motoring experts RAC and Inrix.
With the UK having a mid-week Christmas this year, figures suggest a longer period of ‘pre-Christmas panic’ on the roads, with 5.7 million drivers hitting the road on Wednesday and Thursday already.
Traffic hotspots include major motorways such as the M3, M25, roads leading to Gatwick Airport and the M53 between Chester and Liverpool, the M4/M5 Interchange near Bristol, and the M60 near Manchester among others.
The RAC said ‘Frantic Friday’ will see around 3 million journeys, followed by ‘Snarl-up Saturday’ on December 21 with 3.7 million trips.
But that is just a warm-up for the busiest day – Christmas Eve – when a whopping 3.8 million drivers have said they will travel.
The bad news is that Christmas Eve coincides with the usual commuter traffic, meaning queues and delays are likely on major routes.
For return journeys, the busiest time will be Boxing Day with 4.4 million additional trips, and Friday, December 27 which is predicted to see 3.8 million journeys.
If you can hold off from hitting the road until about 6pm in the lead-up to Christmas, you might be able to avoid the worst of the getaway.
The worst time to travel is between 1pm and 7pm on Frantic Friday and Snarl-up Saturday, according to the RAC and Inrix.
Inrix and RAC have identified the worst times to be behind the wheel.
This includes the M3 on Friday evening when more than 45-minute queues are likely between junction J2 (M25) and the south coast.
Another busy stretch will be on the M25 anticlockwise from the junction for M1 near Watford to the M24 for Gatwick Airport.
The RAC said that planned engineering works on the railways could have a knock-on effect on road traffic as some travellers will opt for a car.
A significant chunk of rail improvement work takes place at Christmas and New Year to avoid the busiest commuter times.
Major works will affect travel to and from the UK’s busiest train stations, including Liverpool Street, Paddington and St Pancras.
Trains at London St Pancras will see major changes over Christmas and until New Year, including on the Thameslink network.
London Liverpool Street – the UK’s busiest station – will be closed between Christmas and New Year for engineering works which will affect Stansted Express, Elizabeth line, Greater Anglia, c2c and some Overground services.
Read more about the upcoming rail disruption and a full list of station closures here.
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