Bank holiday travel disruption expected

Travellers face road and rail chaos over the bank holiday weekend, with major highways expected to be packed and many trains replaced by buses.

There are 42 sets of engineering work going on on the railways today, including work on the London to Scotland west-coast line. Traffic jams are likely to be exacerbated by revellers travelling to five music festivals, including those at Reading and Leeds. Other events include the Notting Hill carnival in west London and the Rugby League Challenge Cup final at Wembley.

The airports are also expected to be busy, with a late booking surge resulting in almost two million Britons heading abroad for a late-summer break. The travel organisation Abta said that over the weekend more than 420,000 will pass through Heathrow airport on their way out.

And about 70,000 will board the Eurostar for trips to the continent, with the landmark 100 millionth passenger due to travel from London to Paris tomorrow morning. Abta's chairman, John McEwan, said: "Many families see the bank holiday as their last-ditch attempt to get a holiday abroad and guaranteed sunshine. People have been holding on to their money until they are sure they have enough to go away with." Last night, traffic on the M5 was jammed after police became worried about a man on a bridge above the motorway. Queues nine miles long were reported.