Accidents delay Bank Holiday travel

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One of the most disruptive hold-ups was on the M25 in Surrey, which delayed Gatwick airport-bound holidaymakers who were among the 1.9 million Britons flying abroad over the weekend.

Another serious accident led to the westbound closure of a section of the M58 near Skelmersdale in Lancashire.

Concerns about the safety of a man on the Avon Bridge led to a closure of the M5 northbound between Junctions 21 and 18 near Bristol.

And two lanes of the M62 were closed in Greater Manchester, while there was also heavy traffic reported on the northern part of the M25, the A303 near Stonehenge in Wiltshire, the M23 in Surrey and the M4 in Berkshire.

With forecasters predicting that temperatures could reach 25C (77F) in London on Bank Holiday Monday, many people headed for the numerous music festivals taking place over the weekend, including the popular Reading festival in Berkshire.

Motoring groups warned that major routes would remain busy over the weekend, while train travellers were having to contend with a number of rail engineering works, including 42 on Sunday alone.

This is resulting in a number of trains being replaced by buses, although train companies are operating 3,500 more trains than last August Bank Holiday, as well as replacing 15% fewer train services with bus services.

Friday was the busiest day for Bank Holiday flight departures, with 420,000 due to fly over the weekend (Friday to Monday) from Heathrow airport and 245,000 from Gatwick. Top destinations for those getting away were Majorca and Ibiza, mainland Spain, Turkey, Portugal and the Greek islands.

Top city-break destinations were New York, Amsterdam, Dublin and Rome.