Bank Holiday travellers face jams and disruption

People travelling across the country over the Bank Holiday weekend face traffic jams and severe disruption if they use trains because of engineering work, rail and motoring bodies warned yesterday.

Network Rail is carrying out engineering works across Britain to upgrade train lines, affecting services from London to Wales and Scotland.

Meanwhile, the RAC said around 11 million people would hit the roads, with traffic expected to start building up on major routes later yesterday.

"Our engineers will be working day and night across the country over the two bank holiday weekends this May," said Iain Coucher, Network Rail's chief executive.

"Fewer people travel at bank holidays, so these weekends are the least disruptive time to improve the railway. However, Network Rail understands this work can impact on people's journeys and does everything it can to minimise this."

Bus replacement services will operate instead of trains on many lines. But consumer watchdog Passenger Focus argued that train companies should only use buses as a last resort and should also ensure people were not charged more for longer journeys.

"Passengers understand that engineering works need to happen to ensure a reliable and safe railway and it makes sense for these works to happen when fewer people are travelling," said Ashwin Kumar, Passenger Focus director.