The bank holiday weekend is proving the quietest in years on the roads as soaring petrol costs force would-be holidaymakers to abandon planned getaways.
But Black Country tourist attractions were today keeping their fingers crossed for high visitor numbers despite fears that rising food and energy prices might force people to cut back on spending.
More than 18 million cars usually take to the country’s roads over the spring bank holiday weekend.
Yet the Highways Agency has reported a quiet time on the roads and there were no queues at the pumps today as petrol prices forced drivers to re-think their long trips. Barj Singh, who runs Blakenhall Service Station in Dudley Road, Wolverhampton, said: “On a bank holiday weekend we’d normally need an extra person to help me out, but today I’m by myself and it’s quiet.
“It was the same last bank holiday. People are being put off going anywhere because of the prices. I’m not expecting it to be anything other than quiet.
“At the moment a litre of diesel is £1.28, but when we have our next tanker of diesel we’ll have to charge £1.30 a litre.”
Travellers planning on catching trains to London were set to face longer journey times on the busy West Coast Main Line which has shut down all Virgin Trains and London Midland services between the West Midlands and Euston station today, tomorrow and on Bank Holiday Monday.
Despite the increased traffic that could normally be expected as a result, the region’s motorways have so far been surprisingly manageable for a bank holiday with no serious accidents and no traffic jams.
Peter Suddock, chief executive of Dudley Zoo, said he expected the attraction to benefit from soaring petrol prices as people choose to stay closer to home for the weekend. He said: “We expect lots of people will want to stay local.”
6 Comments
Surely you ran a story a few days ago saying exactly the opposite of what’s written here and saying Birmingham Airport were expecting 30,000 more passengers than last year, or did I just dream that? Something fishy’s going on…
Rebecca, everyone I know has put off going anywhere, there was the option of going abroad for a cheap break once but even that option has now been stopped, due to holiday companies merging and restricting the amount of holiday available, see the headlines in the Sun Newspaper recently.
Families face price rises of up to 12 per cent for this year’s summer holidays, travel bosses warned yesterday, a shake-up of the industry means there are more than a million fewer beds to choose from – and popular spots are costing more.
Mergers between tour giants Thomas Cook and MyTravel, and Thomson and First Choice mean there will be fewer flights and hotels to choose from.
I believe that due to Gordon Browns insistence on bleeding the country dry through exorbitant fuel and motoring tax’s, that the UK is now on the threshold of one of the worst forced recessions in its history.
Obviously there is going to be a problem in the future with supplying enough oil to keep the world going but, if Gordon Brown was serious about saving the worlds oil, why would he tax people who make their own diesel oil from waste oil? Oil that would normally be thrown away, why are British farmers growing rape seed crops in this country, and then it is exported to Germany for them to make cheap diesel from it?
Try asking our MP’s, why their pension scheme is in a separate scheme to everyone else’s and why don’t they pay tax on their pension like everyone else does? Its because its all to do with changing a British workforce with one that resembles one more like a Chinese workforce, where people are paid a pittance in wages and the people at the top control 90+ percent of the wealth of the country.
Unless Gordon Browns cuts the tax on fuel this country is doomed.
Jim of Bearwood
Rebecca, those passangers at the airport were probably flying abroad to cut the cost living compared to this country. Some won’t bother coming back once they see just how expensive it is to live here - it’s not just fuel that’s ripping wallets apart.
It’s good Dudley Zoo talking about ’staying local’ as well..considering they’re planning to sell off the facility to ‘developers’ (multi-naional, fat-cat housing exec’s!).
I was listening to a very good travel writer on the radio yesterday one who gets around the world as cheaply as possible,and he was saying get your foreign travel in know as the end of the cheap travel will hit in next year.The airlines paid in advance for there fuel and the tour operators paid upfront for this years allocations of holiday spaces so next year should see a massive price hike,unless the fuel drops a great amount.cant see that one.Can you
It was not just the fuel cost that kept people at home, the weather did not help either.I did go off to see friends in Wales,the motorways on the way back were very busy and dangerous in the pouring rain with lorries causing so much spray that it was hard to see in front.If I had gone abroad, the travel may have been cheaper but with the pound down,spending power has dropped and life there is now more expensive. Fuel costs are affecting everyone and many businesses are making a lot of money by raising their prices well above what is needed and blame the cost of fuel for doing so.Just wait till Tesco etc, publish their yearly profits, there will be no sign of hardship. The shareholders will be laughing all the way to the bank! There is too much media talk about rising costs and poor people. Stop reading it, that alone will make you feel better. I manage on a moderate pension, am careful, have always saved and now I will continue enjoying life, have the odd trip abroad and make use of what is on offer locally.