Spain's Easter getaway reaches its peak
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By h.b. - Apr 9, 2009 - 7:23 AM
Today is historically the busiest day of the year on Spanish roads

Today is a bank holiday across most of Spain as Holy Week reaches its climax. The region of Cataluña is the exception where Monday is taken as a holiday instead of today.

The DGT traffic authority has started a special operation to try and keep traffic flowing on the roads, where 20 people have died across the country since last Friday.
Delays were seen on roads out of Madrid yesterday and in places along the costas.

All the country’s ski stations are reported to be busy as snow conditions are good and most of the stations having many kilometres of pistes open to skiers.

The D.G.T. says that the traffic this morning (Thursday) is the busiest day of the year in Spain, and recommend travellers to stagger their departure times. Last year hold ups of some 200 kms were recorded.

Traffic blackspots in addition to the exit roads of Madrid can be found on the A-3 in Valencia, N-332 in Torrevieja, on the A-30 and A-7 in Murcia, sections of the A-92 to Sevilla and on the S-10 in Camargo, Cantabria.

2.6 million journeys are forecast on the access roads to Málaga over Holy Week this year. Tourism officials on the Costa del Sol say there has been a last minute rush in bookings and the no vacancies signs are common both on the coast and inland.

RENFE Spanish railways has been adding extra services and carriages, especially on AVE high speed lines, but an error on the Madrid to Sevilla route resulted in some 20 people boarding the train only to find that there were no seats. It happened on the 11pm service from the capital last night.
The train has not suffered such an overbooking problem for more than a year.

The Spanish Meteorological Agency AEMET is forecasting rain in the north of the country, but the rest of Spain and the costas should remain dry and sunny. There will be rain on Friday in Cataluña, Valencia and on the Balearics.

The DGT freephone number is 900 123 505 and their website is www.dgt.es
RENFE website is www.renfe.es

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