THE AA has revealed which day you need to travel in order to avoid chaos on the road this Christmas.
Experts expect more than 32 million drivers to hit the road over the festive period due to a quirk in the calendar.
PAThe AA has revealed the best day to travel to avoid Christmas congestion[/caption]
Traditionally, Christmas Eve is the day of the rush as Britain’s workers scramble to get to relatives in time for the big day itself.
However, this year the AA predicts most of the traffic will be seen on December 22 and 23.
This is thanks to the fact that, this year, Christmas falls on a Monday, allowing motorists to take advantage of the weekend to spend longer with their loved ones.
As such, rather than everyone bolting off around the country on the evening of December 24, the Friday evening and most of Saturday are likely to see the worst congestion.
Then people are able to spend the Sunday and Monday in comfort before heading back home on Boxing Day.
AA President Edmund King said: “While Friday 22 December and Saturday 23 December look set to be the busiest travelling days, the unsettled weather forecast could lead to additional delays so drivers should drive to the conditions and slow down where necessary.
“New Year’s Day will be the quietest day on the roads which is probably a good thing especially if drivers have been partying the previous evening.”
The Association also singled out a selection of major roads for drivers to avoid.
These include the M25 between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare, the M6 around Birmingham, the northbound M1 from Luton plus all of the M60, M62 and M4.
And it’s not just the roads that will see disruption, with Newtork Rail engineering works shutting down some popular travel routes.
London King’s Cross and London Paddington will both be closed on Christmas Eve, with the latter also shut on December 27.
Between December 23 and New Year’s Day London Victoria’s Southeastern services will be diverted to one of Blackfriars, Charring Cross or Cannon Street.
Moreover, no trains will operate at all on Christmas Day and timetables will be heavily limited on Boxing Day.
Lawrence Bowman, Network Rail’s network strategy director said: “We understand how important this time of year is for our passengers for reconnecting with family and friends.
“With more than 96% of the network open for business as usual, we have tried as far as possible to design our investment projects around our passengers and keep disruption to a minimum.
“We plan our Christmas engineering programmes months- and in some cases years, in advance and target the quietest times, overnight, weekends and Christmas Day and Boxing Day to ensure we keep what disruption there is to an absolute minimum and will always looks to use diversions rather than put people on buses.
“But some routes will see disruption as we upgrade the railway, so it’s important that passengers check their journeys before travelling.”