Christmas rush arrives as getaways and gift-buying frenzy begins

The country's road network will be jammed with 13 million journeys a day, there will be disruption with train services with the biggest ever works taking place on the railways and nearly 400,000 people will be flying out from Birmingham Airport.

Shopping centres and high streets are also braced for a flood of shoppers for 'Panic Saturday' snapping up last-minute presents today on the final weekend before December 25.

Meanwhile, paramedics across the Black Country will be on standby from the fallout of so-called 'Mad Friday' yesterday with revellers celebrating breaking up from work and partying over the weekend and into next week.

Nathan Hudson, general manager for West Midlands Ambulance Service, said: "Every year over the festive period the ambulance service gets called to a large number of cases where people of all ages have had far too much to drink.

"Drinking causes people to do things they definitely wouldn't do if they were more sober.

"The knock on effect of this is that our highly trained medical staff are having to babysit fully grown adults who don't know when they have had enough alcohol.

"These staff should be available to treat people who have suffered a life threatening emergencies.

"While we do not wish to spoil people's fun, we would just ask people to be sensible and take responsibility for themselves and their own actions when they are out celebrating this year."

Meanwhile more than £1.8 billion will be spent in shops today.

Claire Davenport, managing director for VoucherCodes, said: "Although we're expecting slightly fewer shoppers on the streets this Saturday, 12.6 million Brits is still a significant turnout and kicks off almost a full week of last minute spending.

"Big brands seem to be kicking off Christmas earlier every year with festive adverts and discount shopping days fuelling spending, but that doesn't stop Brits finishing their shopping at the last possible minute with billions to be spent on and offline in the final week before the big day."

Highways England has brought a touch of Christmas cheer by lifting almost 400 miles of roadworks from December 23 to January 2.

A total of 148 schemes will be completed or halted, leaving 98 per cent of its 9,534-mile network free of roadworks in time for the holidays.

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "We are on the side of the honest motorist, making it easier for people to get around, as well as creating jobs and opportunities.

"It's impossible to improve roads without some element of engineering work, but I also know how frustrating they can be. We are determined to apply common sense to our roads so we can minimise disruption.

"Clearing roadworks over Christmas is a big win for motorists. Over the period millions of families will get in the car to visit loved ones. This move will allow hardworking people to travel around freely at Christmas time and see friends and family."

And it was particularly sweet news for drivers in the Black Country, with repair work on the link road off the M6 at Wednesbury on to the M5 in West Bromwich finished last week.

The work over-ran by six months and had led to huge traffic jams, with drivers faced with lengthy detours through the region's congested roads.

An upgrade to street lighting near Junction 10 of the M6 is also set to be completed this week as is work to renew bridge joints between junctions 1 and 2 of the M5 near West Bromwich.

And the worst day of the year for road congestion may already have passed.

The AA was expecting more than 13 million journeys of at least 20 miles to be yesterday, as people going on holiday mixed with shoppers and commuter traffic.

The figure, from a survey of its members, represents a rise of about three million journeys on the Friday before Christmas last year.

Christmas Day is the quietest day of the year as far as the roads are concerned, although last year the AA still responded to more than 2,700 call outs for assistance.

Workers on duty at the AA's operational centre in Oldbury will be hoping things don't get too busy - the firm lays on a special buffet for all staff on Christmas Day.

Birmingham Airport is expecting almost 400,000 passengers over the next two weeks - an increase of 17.9 per cent on the same period last year.

Bosses say the busiest day is likely to be January 3, with almost 30,000 flights booked, while more than 28,000 bookings have been taken for both December 27 and 28.

And just over 8,000 flights have been booked for Christmas Day, up 63.1 per cent on 2014.

Paul Kehoe, CEO of Birmingham Airport, said: "We are expecting the busiest Christmas on record at Birmingham Airport.

"Popular destinations for passengers jetting off to visit family and friends over Christmas include Ireland and Scotland. Those seeking warmer weather are jetting off to Cancun, Dubai, Spain and Portugal."

Mr Kehoes said the most popular Christmas Day destinations were expected to be Dubai, Bridgetown, Amritsar, Hurghada, Tenerife, Rome and Alicante.

A word of warning for anyone planning to take a flight - don't take wrapped presents in your luggage as you may get asked to open them by security.

Festive items that are banned on planes include party poppers and Christmas crackers.

Other modes of transport are also set to the popular this year, with a total of four million people expected to travel abroad over the festive period.

Hundreds of thousands of people will cross the Channel by ferry or train, with December 23 and 30 expecting to be especially busy according to The Association of British Travel Agents.

Meanwhile rail services are set to be disrupted by engineering work between Christmas and New Year.

They include the closure of the West Coast Main Line between Stafford and Crewe on December 27 and 28.

Network Rail says it is carrying out one of the biggest Christmas and New Year investment programmes ever carried out on Britain's rail network.

It says that across the country around 500 improvement projects will be carried out over the festive period.