Holidaymakers have waited in queues for up to 90 minutes at the Port of Dover as the Easter getaway kicked off with congestion on the motorways and disruption on the rail network.
As the long holiday weekend began on Good Friday morning, large numbers of cars arrived at the Kent port, but traffic was moving and ferries were sailing well.
P&O Ferries and operator DFDS reported delays of about 60 minutes to the port’s entrance and drivers were advised to bring supplies in case of long waits.
Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “First of all, the weather’s clear, the ferries are sailing well, and all that sort of stuff, this weekend was always scheduled to be about 30% lighter than last weekend, today being the busier day.
“What we did is we worked with our ferry operators to try and spread the demand across the three days rather than all on this day.
“I know that that’s challenging for the coach industry because they have itineraries that they want to maintain, but they’ve worked with the ferry operators to be able to do that, and that’s been successful.
“We’ve also installed a new facility to expand our processing at the borders for coaches, that’s operational, I just saw one goes through in just shy of 10 minutes.
“It’s going to be a busy day, we’re running probably about an hour to an hour and a half to get through border controls at the moment, and we will peak through probably early afternoon, and then it will start to slow down after that.”
He said holidaymakers should bring drinks, food and entertainment for children if they were arriving at the port from 10am.
It came after chaotic scenes at the port last weekend when thousands of people were delayed, reportedly by up to 14 hours.
Significant engineering work will be taking place on the rail network until the end of Easter Monday as Network Rail said it was carrying out essential improvement and engineering work.
Images of thousands of rail passengers queueing at stations, including Stansted airport railway station, have been shared on social media as travellers described being delayed for hours as a result of service disruption and a surge in journeys.
Ruaridh Pritchard, a writer from London, was delayed for three hours as a result of crowds and service reductions on his way to Stockport, from St Pancras.
He said: “Staff are doing the best they could under that circumstances. Lots of people arguing and pushing – it was like the last train out of Saigon.”
No trains will run to or from Euston at Easter and the west coast mainline will be closed between Euston and Milton Keynes Central.
The only line open between Birmingham and London over the Easter weekend is the Chiltern Railways line between Birmingham Moor Street and Marylebone, which is expected to be especially busy and is also the only route available between Oxford and London.
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Some services cannot call at London Victoria, and may be diverted to London Bridge instead. In addition, there is no Gatwick Express service over Easter.
The Hastings Line between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings stations will be closed throughout the Easter weekend. Southeastern services will also be disrupted on Saturday and Sunday as Charing Cross and Waterloo East will be closed.
Long-term improvement work at Carstairs will disrupt Easter journeys between Carlisle and Glasgow Central and Edinburgh, information from the Rail Delivery Group said.
Sophie Earish, a student from Wembley Park, said her normal 20-minute tube journey to St Pancras took an hour because of closures on the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines.
When she arrived at St Pancras station, on her way to visit her partner in Loughborough, the 26-year-old said she then had to queue for an hour and a half for a train north.
“I didn’t realise Euston was closed this weekend causing this mess,” Earish said. “The queue to get to trains on the platforms were chaotic … why do they think it’s acceptable to do engineering works over the Easter weekend? It’s ridiculous, it seems to be the same every year.”
More than 10,200 flights are expected to depart UK airports across the weekend, with Good Friday expected to be the busiest day.
Congestion was reported on the M1, M4, M5, M6, M11, M20, M25, M27, M40, M56 and M61, as well as obstructions on the M1, M3, M6, M11, M23 and M25, according to Highways England data.
Traffic is expected to peak on Saturday with at least 15m car journeys expected to take place, the AA said.
