Easter travellers face lengthy delays and disruption on roads and railways in Scotland

Millions of motorists are expected on the roads on Good Friday and major engineering work is taking place on the line between Scotland and London in what is predicted to be the busiest travel day of the Easter weekend.

The RAC estimates 4.62 million journeys are likely to be made across the UK, with a further 22.48 million over the bank holiday weekend – the first Easter free of Covid restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic.

Rail passengers have also been warned of further delays as Network Rail carries out 530 engineering projects costing a total of £83m across the weekend.

These include the closure of the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Milton Keynes for four days from Good Friday due to upgrades of the existing line and HS2 work.

🐣 🛠️ Travelling this weekend?

There's major works on the line between Scotland, Carlisle, Birmingham New Street and London Euston starting today and running until the end of Monday.

Most other routes open as normal.
— Network Rail Scotland (@NetworkRailSCOT) April 15, 2022

Rail replacement buses are also running between Carlisle and Glasgow and Edinburgh, as engineers will renew tracks at a range of locations on the west coast main line including Ecclefechan, Carstairs, Beattock and Abington.

ScotRail also warned football fans heading to Hampden for the Scottish Cup semi-finals that services would be extremely busy.

Hearts take on their Edinburgh rivals Hibs at the national stadium on Saturday, while Rangers and Celtic face each other on Easter Sunday.

It’s gonna be a big weekend with Edinburgh & Glasgow derbies at @HampdenPark for the @ScottishCup semi-finals.

We’re adding all the extra seats we can, but trains are still going to be mega busy.

Plan your journey now on our app.@CelticFC @JamTarts @RangersFC @HibernianFC
— ScotRail (@ScotRail) April 13, 2022

Dover-Calais sailings by P&O Ferries remain suspended as of Thursday night, which caused large queues of lorries forming on roads approaching the Port of Dover throughout the day.

But P&O have resumed some passengers services on the route between Cairnryan and Larne in Northern Ireland.

On top of all the travel disruption, supplies of petrol and diesel at filling stations in some areas of the country have been at around half their usual level as the UK’s travel network comes under pressure.

The average price of a litre of unleaded petrol stood at 161.8p as of April 11, slightly below the recent record of 165.4p, while diesel was 176.2p, below the recent record of 177.5p.

Meanwhile, the legal requirement to wear masks in most indoor public spaces and on public transport will be dropped in Scotland from Easter Monday.

The law will be replaced by guidance, with people “strongly recommended” to wear face coverings in crowded indoor spaces and on public transport.

Scotland has seen its Covid numbers drop for the third week in a row. Some 314,800 people were estimated to have had the virus last week, or around one in 17.

That is down from 396,800 people, or one in 13, the previous week.