More than 1 million motorists are expected to clog up UK roads on the last working day before the festive break

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Drivers have been warned to leave before lunchtime on “Frantic Friday” to avoid the worst of the Christmas traffic, with 1.3 million motorists expected to clog up UK roads on the last working day before Christmas.



Long queues and travel disruption have been predicted for Friday, and rail strikes and fog are expected to worsen congestion during the annual Christmas getaway.

Highways England has suspended 99% of roadworks on motorways and major A roads in anticipation of the traffic, with experts predicting that Friday will be one of the worst travel days of the year as leisure drivers fight for road space with regular commuters.

The RAC estimates around 11.5m separate festive getaway trips will take place before Christmas day, and 1.3 million motorists will hit the road.

Met Office (@metoffice) Tomorrow could be one of the busiest days on the roads with @TheRAC_UK dubbing this Friday as #FranticFriday 🚗 We're working with @HighwaysEngland to make sure the roads run smoothly. Here's @AlexDeakin with your Christmas getaway forecast. pic.twitter.com/Qb6xUzSPfr

Boxing Day is predicted to be the most congested day over the Christmas period, with 5.3m separate leisure journeys expected as shoppers head to festive sales.

Fog and poor visibility have been forecast by the Met Office in northern England and Scotland in the build up to the Christmas break, followed by strong winds and heavy rain on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, scuppering hopes of a white Christmas.

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Dr Graham Cookson, the chief economist at transportation analysts Inrix, said many motorists should expect to find themselves stuck in long traffic jams from Friday afternoon onwards.

“After lunch, most of the roads will get busier and stay busy into the evening. What we see is roads in congestion for most of the time, average speeds very slow, people crawling along,” he said.

“The pure weight of traffic means a lot of motorways will be much slower than normal so your total journey takes so much longer.”

Inrix data shows that the worst non-accident traffic blackspot on the Friday before Christmas last year was the A303 at Stonehenge. There were tailbacks for seven miles when congestion at the notorious bottleneck peaked shortly after 6pm on 23 December.

Asked which routes would see the longest queues this year, Cookson said the M25 was “right at the top of the list”, warning that “it doesn’t matter which way you’re going round it”. The M6 between Merseyside and Staffordshire, M1 and M4 would be “incredibly busy as well”.

Southern rail pre-Christmas strike dates changed Read more

Great Western Railway has reminded passengers that London Paddington will be closed between Christmas Eve and 27 December, and the West Coast main line will be halted between Preston and Lancaster from Christmas Eve to December 27, with buses replacing trains. Passengers wanting to travel between London and Glasgow are being advised to go via Edinburgh, adding about an hour to journeys.

Staff at CrossCountry, which mainly serves the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East, will strike on 23, 24, 27 and 31 December, while Greater Anglia trains will not run on 27 December due to RMT industrial action.

The coach operator National Express is running its largest Christmas schedule to meet increased demand from key locations such as Bournemouth, Cardiff, Leeds, Edinburgh, Portsmouth, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester.

Airports, ports and international train stations will be exceptionally busy with more than 4.5 million people heading abroad over Christmas and the new year. At the UK’s busiest airport, Heathrow, 130,000 passengers are scheduled to depart on Friday.