Heavy delays choke major corridors into South and North
Traffic on major highways bound for Southern Europe ground to a standstill on Saturday as peak Black Saturday travel generated massive delays across the continent. Holidaymakers faced the severe congestion along the famous Route du Soleil between Lyon and Marseille in France, while Swiss transit routes saw near-total gridlock, according to Dutch motoring association ANWB.
Delays along the southbound A6 and A7 highways near Lyon initially reached up to three hours before easing to 90 minutes by mid-afternoon. Heavy traffic also stalled drivers along the A9 route running from Orange to the Spanish border.
In Switzerland, authorities temporarily closed the Gotthard Tunnel following a road accident, trapping southbound drivers headed toward Italy in delays lasting between 90 and 120 minutes. Heavy holiday congestion also built up across Southern Germany into Austria, as well as on key mountain passes linking Austria to Italy.
Farther north, the ANWB reported an unusually sharp traffic spike near Hamburg, driven by a growing surge of tourists heading toward Scandinavian destinations.
Shift in travel patterns as afternoon peak subsides
The extreme congestion aligned with early-morning predictions from traffic monitoring services. The ANWB had advised travelers to delay their departures until later in the day to bypass the worst bottlenecks, noting that gridlock typically peaks in the morning hours and begins subsiding after 2:00 PM.
The term “Black Saturday” originally referred to the chaotic annual French travel weekend, when large portions of the domestic population launch their summer holidays on the first Saturday of August. Today, transport agencies use the phrase broadly to describe regional traffic jams spanning Western Europe.
@ anp | NEWSBRAINPORT
