Bank Holiday chaos looms

Chaos looms on Britain's motorways today as the August Bank Holiday getaway begins.

An estimated 7.6 million drivers will take to the roads this weekend following Network Rail's decision to press ahead with widespread repairs on mainline routes in and out of London.

The country's three busiest intercity lines, which link London to the West Country and Wales, the North-East and the North-West, will be closed. The AA has warned of serious delays with traffic coming to a standstill on major routes.

The rail shutdown will have a serious effect on the hundreds of thousands of people heading to sporting events, live music events and the Notting Hill Carnival.

With highs of 27C predicted in London, more than a million people are expected to attend the carnival over the weekend, while more than 90,000 people will travel to the three-day Reading Festival.

A further 60,000 people will head to Cardiff for England's rugby international against Wales and 150,000 will go to two days of Rolling Stones concerts at Twickenham. Tourism chiefs described the engineering works as "unfortunate timing".

Essential work will be carried out on the Great Western main line, which will be shut on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Further work will see the Stansted Express service, which takes people from Liverpool Street to Stansted airport, replaced by coaches on Sunday and Monday.

Sections of the West Coast main line will also be closed over the weekend, with severe disruption anticipated on some sections of the Midland main line and on the East Coast main line.

Virgin Trains said a trip from London to Manchester could take up to four and a half hours, rather than the usual two hours 55 minutes.

"Thousands of people who normally travel by train won't be able to this weekend and will therefore head to the roads," said AA spokeswoman Rebecca Rees.

"It could cause significant problems, particularly to west London. We could see traffic on the roads rising by 35 per cent."

Transport Minister Kim Howells defended the decision to go ahead with the rail closures and said: "The long-term gain will outweigh the short-term pain. Thousands of men and women will be working around the clock up and down the country to deliver a safer, faster and more reliable railway. Signals will be replaced and track renewed to bring tangible benefits.

"There is no easy time to do this work. It has been planned to cause the least disruption possible."

Mr Howells said the number of people travelling this weekend would be half the number in a weekday rush hour.

Today's rush hour was expected to start at lunchtime, with millions of motorists leaving early.

According to a new survey, one in five drivers is prepared to spend an extra two hours getting to their destination. The poll, by insurance firm Privilege, found that one person in four is planning to travel more than 400 miles over the break, and top destinations include London, Brighton, Bournemouth and Blackpool.