Christmas travel and weather: Chaos continues as flights cancelled and Met Office predicts snow

Christmas Eve travel plans could be ruined with heavy winds set to batter parts of the country ahead of a rain-soaked December 25.

Gusts as high as 60 to 70 mph are due to hit the north of Scotland and northern and central areas of England on Sunday, forecasters have said.

Two separate yellow wind warnings have been issued, saying people should expect travel disruption, damage to buildings and power cuts, while the rest of the country may see showers.

Forecasters said: “Give yourself the best chance of avoiding delays by checking road conditions if driving, or bus and train timetables, amending your travel plans if necessary. “

The RAC estimates 3.2 million car journeys will be made across the country on Christmas Eve, and last-minute getaway trips could be disrupted.

Christmas Day morning is set to be neither merry nor bright for most, with rain across parts of England and Wales.

However, a white Christmas, defined as a single snowflake falling on December 25, is likely for a short period over high ground in the far north of Scotland.

Met Office spokesman Stephen Dixon said: “There’s potentially going to be some travel disruption on Christmas Eve, to the east of the Pennines in particular, because of that wind.

“It’s also going to be a very windy day in Scotland as well, so a chance of some travel disruption and power cuts, particular given the wind we saw recently with Storm Pia.”

A mother and daughter had to pay for a hotel for the night after their train back to France was cancelled on Thursday.

Sophie Lesaint, 53, and Mariane Tadebois, 23, arrived at St Pancras at 6.30am on Friday and managed to book a train for 2pm.

Mrs Lesaint said: “We received an email at 1pm yesterday and then we were trying to find a solution to get a train as soon as possible, but it was not possible.

“We were refreshing our emails all the time. So this morning we came very early and we saw all the people queuing.

“When we get to Paris we have to take another train to another town in France, but there was only one seat so we are now travelling separately. It has changed everything, everything is booked up. We had to pay for a hotel, we’re going to try to get compensation after.

“We even looked at getting a ferry or a nine-hour bus. We have to be back with my mum for Christmas.”

A railway line at West Calder was obstructed by a trampoline which landed perfectly on the tracks after being lifted by strong winds.

British Airways has grounded at least 20 short haul – domestic and European – flights from London Heathrow, blaming air-traffic control restrictions.

The outbound BA European departures served Basel, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Geneva and Munich, together with the return legs.

Domestic cancellations involved round-trips from Heathrow to Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle.

A spokesperson for British Airways said: “Due to the continuing air traffic control restrictions put in place because of Storm Pia, we have had to make some adjustments to our schedule.

“We have apologised to our customers for any disruption to their travel plans and our teams are working hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible.”

The weather forecast for today is mostly mild, albeit windy, the Met Office has said.

Rain will be hitting Northern Ireland, northern and eastern England and western Scotland. It will be drier and brighter to the southwest of this.

Northern and eastern Scotland will be colder with some snow showers.

Rain continuing across Scotland and parts of northern England, falling as snow for a time across northeast Scotland where it will be cold. Drier elsewhere though fairly cloudy and mild.

London Underground workers will stage a series of strikes in the new year in a dispute over pay.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action over a 5% pay offer.

Engineering and maintenance workers will be taking action over January 5/6, with no rest-day working or overtime until January 12.

London Underground control centre and power/control members will be taking action over January 7/8, and fleet workers will walk out on January 8.

Signallers and service controller members will take action on January 9 and 12 while all fleet, stations and trains grades will walk out on January 10.

A mother and her two children booked a ferry to France as a back-up after their train was cancelled on Thursday.

Laure Sauve had been rebooked on a 9.30am train on Friday along with her sons Quentin, 16, and Benjamin, 12, but said her 18-year-old son could not book the same train so was travelling separately later in the day.

The 42-year-old university lecturer from Clapham Junction in London said the cancellation on Thursday was “quite a big disappointment”.

But she added that the queues on Friday were “not too bad” as they had been waiting about 30 minutes.

Mrs Sauve said: “We weren’t sure if there were going to be trains today so we booked ferry tickets in case.

“This has happened before, we’ve been in London for 15 years, it’s always like ‘will it be possible for us to be back in France in time for Christmas?’.”

The family said they were spending 10 days in France to see family for Christmas.

A French man received an email two hours before he was due to travel to Paris on Thursday saying his train had been cancelled.

Valentin Walch and Pauline Cerceau, both 26, stayed at a friend’s home overnight but said they saw people who had slept at St Pancras after their travel plans were disrupted.

The pair had been rebooked on a 2pm service on Friday and arrived at the London station at 7am to wait.

Mr Walch, a handball trainer from Chartres, said they were “stressed and a little bit angry” when they saw the email delaying their return to France after a visit to London.

He said: “We prefer to be here early. We know some people who slept in the train station, we’re lucky we stayed at a friend’s.”

Christmas getaway disruption is continuing with long queues for cross-Channel journeys, motorway closures and train cancellations.

The Port of Dover in Kent said it is taking about 90 minutes to process cars with pre-booked tickets.

It attributed the delay to a surge in demand for ferries after the Channel Tunnel rail link was closed on Thursday due to unscheduled industrial action by French workers, which ruined the travel plans of tens of thousands of people.

Network Rail is preparing to launch its festive engineering works, which will cause disruption to journeys.

London Paddington will be closed between Sunday and December 27, meaning no mainline trains will serve Heathrow Airport during that period.

London King’s Cross will also be closed on Christmas Eve.

Outside of the capital, an engineering project near Southampton will cause some disruption to services, as will work to build the new Cambridge South station.

No trains will operate on Christmas Day, while a very limited service will run on Boxing Day.