18m cars to hit the roads; FESTIVE TRAVEL: Great Xmas getaway by land, sea and air.Byline: By Mail Reporter THOUSANDS of drivers were today beginning the great Midlands Christmas getaway. Today is expected to be the busiest day of the festive season on Britain's roads, with the RAC See remote access concentrator. predicting that 18 million cars will be on the road with 3pm the busiest time. The Highways Agency is suspending roadworks on a number of motorway and major A road sites in England over the holiday period, but roadworks remain on some key routes, including the M1 and M25, for safety reasons. Around 16 million cars are expected to be on the roads on the second busiest days - December 2 7 and 28 - while Christmas Day will be relatively traffic free with only four million cars likely. The RAC has forecast that rising fuel prices will mean a reduction in road usage this Christmas. A record 3.5 million Britons will be heading abroad for Christmas. Spain's Canary Islands Canary Islands, Span. Islas Canarias, group of seven islands (1990 pop. 1,589,403), 2,808 sq mi (7,273 sq km), autonomous region of Spain, in the Atlantic Ocean off Western Sahara. They constitute two provinces of Spain. Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1990 pop. are high on the list of destinations of Midlanders travelling overseas during the festive period, travel association Abta said. Egypt, Goa and Dubai are also proving popular, while many skiers are heading for the slopes in France, Austria and Italy. Top city break destinations include Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . Abta said the busiest day for overseas travel will be tomorrow, followed by December 30 when people head off for New Year's Eve celebrations abroad. Between today and January 2, a total of 130,000 passengers are expected to leave from Birmingham airport. Figures for other main UK airports are Heathrow 1.3 million, Gatwick 600,000, Stansted 360,000, Southampton 25,000, Glasgow 110,000, Edinburgh 110,000 and Aberdeen 42,000. More than 200,000 will cross the Channel by ferry or train, with more than 150,000 of them using the high speed London to Paris and Brussels Eurostar services. Talk of milder weather has prompted bookmakers to lengthen length·en tr. & intr.v. length·ened, length·en·ing, length·ens To make or become longer. length  en·er n. the odds
on a White Christmas A white Christmas, to most people in the Northern Hemisphere, refers to snowy weather on Christmas Day. This phenomenon is far more common in some countries than in others. .
Paul Mott, of MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "Anyone who's put money on a White Christmas is unlikely to win anything. We're not expecting snow on the day and it's actually likely to be a lot milder than of late." |
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