Network Rail said there would be some engineering work on the railways over Easter but that 18% more trains were running this holiday compared with last Easter.

Disrupted services due to engineering include those using the West Coast line in north west England, services in and out of London's Liverpool Street station and trains on the Great Western line.

Travellers in Scotland were hit early yesterday by a track-side fire which closed the railway line between Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as the line between Falkirk Grahamston and Cumbernauld.

The late Easter and the royal wedding have resulted in employees having to take only three days off next week to get an 11-day break, starting tomorrow and returning to work on Tuesday May 3.

Travel organisation Abta said the most popular destination for those travelling abroad this Easter was Spain, with the top city destinations being Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, Rome and New York.

Visa Europe said that the "Wills and Kate effect" had caused a 104 per cent year-on-year rise in flight bookings heading out of the UK in the two days preceding the royal wedding, while in-bound trips to the UK have increased 244 per cent.

The company said it had already processed more than 26,000 flight bookings for Britons planning to fly on April 27 and 28, with the most popular destinations being Amsterdam, Malaga, Dublin and the Spanish area of Alicante.

VisitEngland said that 26 per cent of UK adults were planning to take a trip involving at least one overnight stay in the UK over the double bank holiday period.

It added that those likely to make the most overnight-stay trips were from Greater London and north west England.

Travel company Tui, the parent of holiday firms Thomson and First Choice, said its Easter sales were 22 per cent up on last year, while budget airline Ryanair reported its Easter bookings were 10% up on last year. Its top destinations were the Canary Islands, Greece, France, Portugal and Spain.

National Express said its busiest day for coach travel over the period of the two bank holidays was Easter Monday.

On the day of the royal wedding, the company is providing London-bound coaches from 67 towns and cities, with Southampton, Stansted Airport in Essex, and Bournemouth the most-popular starting points for journeys.

The RAC said drivers taking to the roads this Easter were paying, on average, 16 per cent more for petrol and 20 per cent more for diesel than a year ago.

Compared with two years ago, petrol has gone up 43 per cent and diesel up 38 per cent.

Average petrol prices at the pumps at the moment are 135.2p, with diesel averaging 141.69p.

The Association of Train Operating Companies said 3.5 million train journeys would take place today, with 1.8 million on Good Friday, two million on Easter Saturday, 900,000 on Easter Sunday and 1.5 million on Easter Monday.

Sainsbury's Credit Cards said that 10 per cent of Britons plan to holiday within the UK over the royal wedding week, spending a collective £1.45 billion, or an average of £299 each during their break.

Around 6 per cent are going abroad next week, spending a total of £1.94 billion, or £733 each, while on holiday.

Sainsbury's Credit Cards said that tourists going to Egypt were likely to get the best value exchange rate this Easter compared to the same time last year, getting 15 per cent more Egyptian pounds to the British pound.

Holidaymakers can get 8 per cent more Turkish lira to the pound than this time last year, and 6% more US dollars. However, those going abroad to Switzerland will find that they get 9 per cent fewer Swiss francs.