South East braces for bank holiday crush as rail works and 20m car trips collide

Travellers heading through the South East over the August Bank Holiday weekend are being told to expect a squeeze, with rail engineering works and some of the busiest roads in the country coinciding across the Saturday to Monday period, according to [1]. The RAC estimates 20 million leisure trips will be made by car between Friday and Monday as the summer holiday season draws to a close, according to [1]. RAC breakdown spokesperson Harriet Hernando said drivers should be "ready for frantic Friday" and think about setting off before 10am if they can, according to [1]. She also advised that, if the warm weather continues, people should carry plenty of water in case they get caught in a jam, according to [1]. Transport analytics firm Inrix has identified specific congestion hotspots, with the M25 anticlockwise between Junction 17 in Hertfordshire and Junction 12 in Surrey singled out as likely to be busy, according to [1]. That stretch cuts through the heart of the South East's road network and is one to watch if travelling by car over the weekend. In Kent, the picture is more settled than in previous weeks. Operation Brock — the contraflow system on the M20 coast-bound that queues Dover-bound lorries on one side of the motorway to ease wider congestion — has been removed early, according to [1]. The Kent Resilience Forum says it is confident in traffic flows for the rest of the summer, according to [1]. The Port of Dover reports passenger numbers this weekend are lower than on previous summer weekends, though still comparable to past August bank holidays year on year, according to [1]. About 3,500 cars are expected daily on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to [1]. A port spokesperson advised arriving no more than two hours before a pre-booked sailing and sticking to the main A20 and A2 routes to keep the town itself free-flowing for residents and businesses, according to [1]. At Gatwick Airport, the operator says the summer's genuine peak has already passed — 900 flights were scheduled to operate on each of the first, second and third Sundays of August, according to [1]. Even so, the airport is urging anyone travelling by air over the long weekend to plan ahead and book parking in advance, according to [1]. Passengers have also been reminded to arrive when check-in opens: typically two hours before short-haul flights and three hours before long-haul flights, according to [1]. Taken together, the reporting points to a weekend where road traffic — rather than rail or air — is the dominant risk, with the M25's anticlockwise stretch and the general volume of leisure trips the biggest known unknowns, according to [1]. The source does not specify which rail lines or stations are affected by engineering works beyond the general warning of closures, so the exact scope of disruption to train services over the weekend is unconfirmed. What to watch next: confirmation of which specific rail routes and stations face closures over the 29-31 August weekend, and whether Friday's traffic matches the RAC's 20 million-trip forecast.