Rain and strikes set to disrupt August bank holiday plans

Engineering works, including a three-day closure of one of the UK’s busiest train stations, as well as strikes and bad weather are set to disrupt the August bank holiday weekend.

More than 400 Network Rail projects will be delivered up and down the country over the weekend “after what has been hailed the worst-ever summer for UK travel problems”, says the Daily Express.

The fifth busiest train station in the UK, London Euston, will be closed for the whole weekend, with west coast main line passengers told to avoid all but essential rail travel.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Meanwhile, Highways England said 300 miles of roadworks will be lifted for the weekend, but “they will still be in place on three per cent of motorways and A-roads”, the Daily Mail reports.

And holidaymakers flying out from the North West face further disruption after staff at Liverpool John Lennon Airport voted to strike for 36 hours over a new pay deal.

The weather will also be somewhat disruptive with a north/south split roughly dividing the country. There will be “more rain and wind in the north and sunnier spells in the south”, says The Sun.

Met Office forecasters are predicting much fresher weather after a summer with boiling temperatures.

Forecasters said “many places will have sunshine and showers”.

This will be the case throughout the long weekend, as parts of the north-west, especially, face heavy showers at times.

Temperatures are set to drop to around 18C on Saturday and Sunday, with storms predicted in the north.

A cold and dry start is expected on Sunday, with clouds and rain likely to spread east from western areas later in the day.

Temperatures will start rather cool, but will recover to around the seasonal average, with possible warmer conditions at times in the southeast.