Cold and Chaos for Early Easter Road and Rail Problems Predicted for Holiday Break

THE earliest Easter in living memory will have weather to match, it was predicted last night, with heavy snow forecast by the Met Office, beginning this morning in eastern Scotland.

It could be 5cm to 10cm deep over higher ground, and 2cm at low levels.

Later in the day Grampian, central Scotland, Tayside, Fife, the Highlands and islands, the south-west, Lothian and Borders will also be at risk.

More of the same can be expected tomorrow and in the west on Sunday. It will recede from western parts by Monday but persist elsewhere, with Orkney and Shetland also affected.

As stay-at-homes braced themselves for a weekend of blizzards, thousands set off for a holiday in the sun and the motoring organisations predicted the earliest Easter since 1913 could be the worst yet for road congestion, while rail travellers faced delays and cancellations because of extensive engineering work.

Passenger groups and politicians warned Network Rail that there could be no repeat of the damaging engineering overruns at the New Year which prompted rail regulators to fine the company a record GBP14m.

Almost every passenger train company was running only restricted services because of NR’s 30 projects.

One of these is at Rugby in the West Midlands – scene of the worst of the New Year overruns. The work this bank holiday weekend will hit services to London’s Euston station, with Virgin West Coast recommending passengers use the rival East Coast service.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “It’s a huge task that requires us to work night and day over the holiday weekend as this is when there are the fewest people travelling on the railway.”

The AA said 6.5 million cars were expected on the roads over the weekend, with traffic today and Easter Monday expected to be 10per cent heavier than normal. Traffic is expected to be particularly dense on routes leading to major attractions and to coastal towns.

Around 2,027,000 passengers will fly in and out of BAA’s seven UK airports – Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Southampton. Edinburgh Airport will handle around 128,000 passengers and Glasgow is expected to handle 107,000.

Travel association Abta said around two million British tourists were set to go abroad – slightly down on last year because of the different times of school holidays.

GlasgowAirport has created a free, covered pick-up and drop-off zone opposite the main terminal. The new zone is on the ground floor of Short Stay Car Park 2 (the multistorey car park), allowing motorists to drop off and pick up passengers just metres from the front of the terminal. Motorists can have access to the new zone for up to 10 minutes, at no cost.

Drivers should follow the road signs for “drop-off/pickup”. Those arriving on a flight should follow the signs for the pick-up point.

www. nationalrail. co. uk/ easter www. trafficscotland. org www. metoffice. gov. uk

Originally published by Newsquest Media Group.

(c) 2008 Herald, The; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.