Traffic on Egham Hill was in chaos for hours yesterday as hundreds of visitors arrived for Royal Holloway’s Open day. However, the university had not put any traffic management plans in place for the main approach road though Englefield Green which soon became gridlocked.
Visitors arrived from both directions along Egham Hill and so traffic was turning both left and right to enter through the main gate simultaneously. To make matters worse, Royal Holloway had positioned staff just inside the gates to answers visitors’ questions meaning that traffic stopped and cars behind were left blocking Egham Hill. Later, as car parks filled, visitors drove around the campus looking for parking adding to the gridlock.
Queues reached the roundabout at the bottom of Egham Hill as early as 9:00 a.m. and in the opposite direction traffic queued back as far as the junction with St Jude’s Road.
An existing student of the university said that it was “ridiculous” that Royal Holloway had also arranged the ‘halls-move-out-day’ to be that same date and this compounded the problem.
A resident of Englefield Green said “This is another example of how Royal Holloway’s management does not consider the impact on the local community of what it does.”