Drivers facing holiday traffic headache over 'hat-trick of hold-ups'

DRIVERS face a “hat-trick” of frustrating delays as the bank holiday weekend and the end of the school Easter holidays whip up a perfect traffic storm.

- By Neil Lancefield

The RAC warns things will be “equally severe” on Thursday, Good Friday and Saturday, with people making an estimated 2.7 million leisure trips each day.

More than 19 million are planned between Thursday and Easter Monday.

Transport analysis company Inrix predicts delays of more than an hour on Thursday on the 35-mile stretch of the M25 from Junction 7 for Gatwick airport to Junction 16 for the M40.

The M6 in northern England and the M25 going clockwise towards Godstone, Surrey, are also likely to be traffic hotspots.

Drivers could face the longest delays between 11am and 1pm — on Good Friday, especially those using the A303 in Wiltshire and the southbound M5 from Bristol.