UK travel: Stubborn swan closes lane on M6 by 'just chilling' on the motorway

The swan sat in the middle of the lane where it appeared to stare down passersby
Twitter/IndiraBirnie
Eleanor Rose30 March 2018

Motorists have told of their surprise as they cleared a huge tailback on a motorway to discover the delay had been caused by a swan.

"Is this the most British thing ever?" asked one Londoner heading out of town for an Easter weekend getaway.

"We thought that lack of traffic was too good to be true until hit a slow patch... because a swan was chillin' on the motorway," she wrote on Twitter.

She posted an image of the bird showing it appearing to stare her down through the heavy rain that struck large swathes of the UK on Friday.

Twitter/IndiraBirnie

She said a lane was closed on the M6 near Birmingham because of the animal in the road, with motorists cautioned to slow down.

Passengers filmed the bird with incredulity as they passed by, with one person writing: "Been stuck on the motorway for over an hour because of this swan just chillin'.

"Here's the culprit," she added, tweeting a picture of the stubborn long-necked creature.

It came amid travel misery for millions of Brits hitting the roads for Bank Holiday breaks.

Planned upgrades to some parts of the national rail network was expected to mean increased road traffic, with buses carrying rail passengers in some parts of the north west, south west and east of England.

Easter traffic hot spots are set to include the M25 between Gatwick Airport and the M1, the M3 south west of London, the A303 Stonehenge, the M55 between Preston and Blackpool, and the M53 between Liverpool and Chester, according to the RAC.

Highways England's customer service director, Melanie Clarke, said: "Easter is always a busy period on the road network and we'd urge all motorists to make sure they do their bit to check their vehicle is roadworthy before setting off over this period."

Snow is also expected across large parts of the UK on Monday.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT