Major rail disruption and gridlock on the roads is expected as people set off for the big Easter weekend getaway.

Network Rail’s engineers and maintenance teams will be using the four-day weekend to carry out work on the railways, while traffic experts INRIX expect there to be 20% more traffic.

Today is expected to be the busiest day on the roads, with some journeys taking three times longer than average.

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One of the worst-affected routes is expected to be the anticlockwise M25 between junction 4 and the Dartford tunnel.

Drivers are warned to stay away from major roads between 4pm and 6pm to avoid the worst delays.

On the rails, there will be no Southeastern services to and from Charing Cross, Waterloo East and London Bridge on Good Friday and Saturday.

Many rail services will be replaced by buses, as resignalling work takes place between Paddock Wood and Strood, Sittingbourne and Herne Bay/Dover from late Saturday night until the early hours of Monday.

This also means there will be no trains on these routes on Easter Sunday.

Planned engineering works include maintenance at the two-mile long Sevenoaks tunnel, which often causes problems for train services as it is the longest and one of the wettest mainline tunnels in the south east.

Ellie Burrows, train services director at Southeastern, said: “Work to improve our railway continues this Easter bank holiday meaning some lines will be closed and some routes will be diverted to other stations.

"Please plan ahead, allow more time for your journey and check before you travel.”

Nationally, over the weekend there will be around 20 million vehicles on the roads at some time.

Inrix warns people to set out as early as possible to avoid the worst of the traffic.

Senior traffic analyst Greg Hallsworth said: "The busiest time we reckon will be on Thursday evening, on Good Friday around lunchtime between 10am and 2pm and on Easter Monday in the late afternoon, between 2pm and 5pm.

"It will concentrate around busiest routes such as M20 and M2, the approaches to the Channel Ports and to the Channel Tunnel."

The weather is expected to be a mixture of sunshine and showers with highs of 16 over the weekend.

Travel analysts say if it is bright and sunny, coastal towns will be busy, but if conditions are grey and wet, people are more likely to head to places like Bluewater.

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