Severe traffic at East Midlands Airport sees passengers abandon cars and walk
10.09.07
Severe traffic delays caused by fans travelling to a popular motorsport event have affected passengers using East Midlands Airport. Unfortunately we didn't know about the event, and so hadn't warned our readers. There was a warning about it on the airport website (posted on Thursday about an event starting the next day), but there is no link from the home page, so we didn't find it.
East Midlands Airport shares many of its access roads with Donnington Park race circuit. Several times each year a major event is held at the circuit and, even though traffic management systems are put in place, this does cause delays for passengers travelling to or from the airport.
This weekends event, the Renault World Series Motor Racing at Donington Park, was attended by tens of thousands of people and caused traffic on the A453 to reach a standstill on Sunday morning. It was so bad that some motorists abandoned their cars and walked to the airport.
An eyewitness told the BBC that some people with flights to catch were leaving their cars and walking at least a mile to the airport. BBC correspondent Anthony Bartram said: 'The traffic was nose-to-tail along the whole stretch of the A453 that runs alongside the M1 towards Donington and the airport.
Unfortunately, the infrastructure in the area is such that roads do often become blocked when these major events take place. Passengers using East Midlands Airport over any weekend are advised to keep a close eye on the airport or the race circuit's website to see if there is an event. Whenever there is, passengers are advised to allow more time to get to the airport.
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