Bank Holiday gloom predicted

It is a holiday weekend and - you've guessed it - the weather, as the forecasters put it, will at best be "unsettled".

Couple that with major rail maintenance and congestion on the motorways, and we have all the ingredients of a traditional May Bank Holiday.

Mainline rail users face massive disruption over the weekend and throughout next week due to the biggest closure of the West Coast Main Line for 40 years - since it was shut for electrification.

Network Rail (NR) is carrying out track and signal replacement work over more than 100 miles of the busy route between Watford and Stafford.

This means that, from tomorrow until Monday 7 June, there will be no train services to or from Euston between London and the Midlands, operated by Virgin West Coast and Silverlink.

Passengers are advised instead to use Midland Mainline, Chiltern Railways and GNER services.

From Monday 7 June until Sunday 20 June, services to and from Euston will continue to be restricted due to further engineering work between Northampton and Hemel Hempstead.

An NR spokesman defended the move, saying the work had been timed for the holiday weekend and the school holiday the following week because there would be fewer passengers than normal.

South Eastern Train services from Blackfriars, Victoria and Charing Cross and South West Trains travellers from Waterloo face timetable changes, also due to engineering work on the tracks. Buses will replace trains in some areas.

On the Tube there will be no service on the Central line between Woodford and Epping, nor on the Jubilee line between Stratford and North Greenwich over all three days.

On Bank Holiday Monday there will be a reduced Tube service on all lines.

At the airports some 900,000 people will be flying out of the country through Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

Sean Tipton of ABTA said: "This weekend is set to be one of the busiest of this year and, with the British weather apparently letting us down yet again, we will be seeing a large number of late bookers heading off for the sun." More than 10 million motorists will face delays with key roads to Channel ports and airports expected to be "hectic" today and tomorrow.

One route expected to be hit by the rush from late afternoon today is the M25 near Heathrow. Roadworks between Junction 10 near Wisley and Junction 16 at Gerrards Cross will add to congestion.

The M4 could also be reduced to a crawl this evening and tomorrow as West Ham and Crystal Palace fans head to Cardiff for the Division One play-off.