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Travellers are bracing for total chaos today and tomorrow as millions of people embark on their Christmas holiday journeys.
Motorists are advised to avoid travelling before 11am or after 6pm to reduce the chance of being stuck in long queues as an estimated 13.5 million people are set to hit the roads this weekend.
The Met Office has also warned of weather-related travel issues in parts of the UK this weekend as gales, rain and ice blasts threaten the festive getaway.
Two separate yellow wind warnings have been issued as gusts of up 60 to 70 mph are due to hit the north of Scotland and northern and central areas of England.
Network Rail has warned that severe weather is likely to impact some ScotRail routes today, furthering rail disruption after at least 13 train firms have cancelled services yesterday.
The RAC has estimated 13.5 million leisure journeys by car would take place across the UK between Friday and Sunday, up 20 per cent on the three days before Christmas Day last year.
Location technology company TomTom said road congestion in cities across Britain was above normal levels at 3pm.
The time taken to cover 10km (6.2 miles) in London was 20 minutes and 15 seconds, some one minute and 51 seconds longer than usual at that time.
Other cities that saw an increase in journey times over the same distance include Birmingham (two minutes and 11 seconds), Manchester (two minutes and 33 seconds), Glasgow (two minutes and 24 seconds) and Cardiff (four minutes and eight seconds).
But forecasters warn Christmas Eve travel plans could be ruined with heavy winds set to batter parts of the country ahead of a rain-soaked December 25.
The Met Office has yellow snow and ice warnings in force for the north east of Scotland and across the entirety of the Shetland Isles.
The warning for the north east of Scotland spans from just north of Montrose up to the Orkney Islands, and reaches as far west as Ullapool.
The Met Office says on its website that the warning for the north east will end on Saturday at 12pm.
The warning for the Shetland Isles ends at 10am on Saturday.
ScotRail has warned some services will be cancelled and others may be subject to delays. On X, formerly known as Twitter, the train operator said that ‘journeys on some routes will take longer for safety reasons’.
It added: ‘This is due to forecast heavy rain and snow, increasing the risk of flooding, landslips and snow drifts.’
ScotRail said some Glasgow to Oban services would be cancelled on Saturday, as would some Inverness to Elgin trains.
All other services which travel via Elgin will be unaffected.
The company said passengers can expect delays across its West Highland Line services, which includes trains that travel between Inverness, Kyle, Wick, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
ScotRail advised passengers to check the ScotRail app ahead of travelling to see the status of their planned route.
Meanwhile, ferry operator Calmac cancelled a number of services on Friday night and on Saturday, with others being liable to disruption or short-notice cancellations.
Calmac said on X that the cancellations and disruptions are due to ‘adverse weather’ and ‘strong winds’.
For updates on journeys, people can check the ScotRail app and Calmac’s X account.
Meanwhile, long queues are still affecting cross-Channel journeys at the port of Dover as Christmas getaway disruption continues across the country.
P&O Ferries said there were still large queues of ‘approximately 90 minutes’ at border control.
The port has 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.
‘Please come prepared with refreshments to make your wait more comfortable,’ the ferry company advised travellers in a post on X.
P&O Ferries apologised for delays, telling customers: ‘Please accept our sincere apologies for the waiting time you are currently experiencing.
‘We are working hard with the authorities involved to improve the situation and would like to assure you that you will be accommodated on the next available sailing once you get through.’
Road congestion was likely to peak on Friday afternoon as drivers embarking on leisure trips competed for road space with commuters and business traffic.
The A66 in Cumbria is closed in both directions between the A595 south (Bridgefoot) and the A595 north (Cockermouth) due to a serious collision.
Traffic has been diverted via local routes causing delays.
The M20 motorway in Kent has begun re-opening between junctions 8 and 9 after it was closed due to Operation Brock, which involves organising a queue for freight traffic during disruption to cross-Channel services.
At least 13 train firms cancelled services yesterday as millions of passengers were attempting to embark on their festive season getaways.
Cancellations impacted commuters in London and across the nation with rail operators blaming staff shortages for the disruptions.
Services also suffered from points failures, flooding, signalling issues, fallen trees, broken-down trains and electricity failure; while cross-Channel disruption continued.
Eurostar, which operates passenger services to and from London St Pancras, is now operating two extra services per day between London and Paris up to and including Christmas Eve to help people whose trains were cancelled on Thursday.
Vehicle-carrying train service Eurotunnel is running its usual timetable but is only accepting customers who have pre-booked.
On the domestic railway, disruption from strong winds remained following chaos caused by Storm Pia on Thursday.
Southeastern said ‘a shortage of available train crew’ was continuing to disrupt its services on Friday.
Services on the Sheerness line were suspended at 10am for the rest of the day, and there are cancellations on the high-speed line to and from London St Pancras throughout the day.
The Elizabeth line suffered severe delays on Friday afternoon between London Paddington, Reading and Heathrow Airport after two trains broke down.
Network Rail said disruption was expected between Mansfield and Worksop for the end of the day, as well as between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley, caused by damage to the overhead electric wires in the Aston area of Birmingham.
No LNER trains served Inverness on Friday morning.
ScotRail services were suspended between Inverness and Wick, Tain, Ardgay and Lairg.
Furious passengers took to social media yesterday to hit out the rail operators who cancelled trains across Britain.
‘I had 4 trains cancelled on me yesterday. Four. It took me 10hrs to do a 2hr journey,’ one traveller tweeted on Friday.
Another echoed: ‘After my train got cancelled yesterday due to the tunnel strike, I managed to book another train for today which is now delayed by 45 minutes. All my Christmas plans for this weekend is changed. Thanks to Eurostar.’
One passenger tweeted Transport for Wales to say: ‘Thanks @tfwrail a cancelled train in the morning so I’m late for work and now another one cancelled so I’m even later getting home. You are an awful company you know that right? A joke of a company. Santa is getting you a whole bag of coal.’
Another added: ‘There’s nothing more Christmassy than the announcement about the festive options in the LNER dining car, on a train so packed with people from other cancelled services that the idea of moving through the carriages is completely absurd.’
And a third tweeted Southeastern to say: ‘You’re an absolute shambles. Six carriages for a Xmas service to DVP (Dover Priory) isn’t enough. No luggage space to put buggy so separated from my kids and wife. Every time you fail to deliver a service you promise.’
As the Elizabeth line suffered severe delays yesterday afternoon between London Paddington, Reading and Heathrow Airport, passengers were left stuck on trains amid fears over missed flights.
One posted on X: ‘Sitting on a stationary Lizzy line train outside Acton Main Line to Heathrow Terminal 4 for last 20 minutes…. apparently a broken train on tracks ahead of us. How many hundred people are going to miss their flights because of this?’
It comes after major chaos on Eurostar and LeShuttle following an unexpected strike by Eurotunnel French site staff that cancelled all cross-Channel rail services.
The last-minute industrial action led to widespread disruption on Thursday, before it came to end in the evening – with trade union representatives reaching an agreement with management.
The strike affected Eurostar, which operates passenger services to and from St Pancras; and LeShuttle, which runs vehicle-carrying trains to and from Folkestone.
At least 30 Eurostar trains were cancelled but services resumed Friday morning, with the company promising to run six extra trains between Paris and London into the weekend – an extra two trains each today and tomorrow.
One traveller branded Eurostar an ‘utter disgrace’ after being met with cancellations on Thursday and then long queues on Friday.
Another frustrated passenger, who sat on the carriage floor during her commute, tweeted yesterday: ‘@Eurostar want to explain why I had to pay £400 to rebook a canceled train just to be told our seats our taken and now having to sit on the floor!!!?’
At the Port of Dover yesterday, thousands of holidaymakers and truckers faced traffic misery.
Hundreds of freight lorries were queued up on the M20 waiting to be allowed to head towards the port and the Channel Tunnel.
Roads in and around Dover town centre were gridlocked as desperate travellers tried to reach the port – with huge queues of lorries and cars heading to the port on main roads.
The congestion was made worse as a result of unexpected industrial action by Eurotunnel staff in France on Thursday which created a backlog of congestion, and travellers still faced lengthy waits on Friday.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke slammed the chaos and described it as unacceptable. She tweeted: ‘The overnight traffic chaos in Dover was completely unacceptable.
‘Kent Resilience Forum and @KentHighways failed to manage traffic appropriately in the town. I will be taking this up with them.’
Justin Smith-Essex posted on X: ‘You do realise there is a moveable barrier that could have been put in place last night overnight and avoided all this gridlock on local roads?
‘But oh no since moved to the middle let’s ignore it and just keep closing the entire junction!’
Other locals were calling for further action by authorities. Stephanie de Giorgio said on X: ‘Can the powers that be start getting food and loos and drinks ready for the freight drivers on the M20 now?
On the roads, festive getaway traffic is expected to peak earlier than normal this year as Christmas Day falls on a Monday.
The AA predicted that Saturday will be one the busiest days on the UK’s roads in the festive period.
Christmas Eve is traditionally the main day for getaway journeys, but this year many people are taking advantage of a weekend immediately preceding Christmas Day to make trips to friends and family.
The AA estimated that 16.4 million car journeys will take place today. It issued an ‘amber traffic warning’ for those days as it warned of ‘lengthy jams’.
Meanwhile the RAC warmed of daily delays with UK drivers expected to make 21 million leisure trips between Monday of this week and Christmas Eve.
The organisation said getaway traffic will climb slowly at the start of this week before jumping from 2.2million trips to 3.2million on Friday, the last working day before Christmas Day.
Some 13.5million leisure journeys by car are expected through Christmas Eve, up 20 per cent on the equivalent period last year.
Congestion is likely to peak on Saturday as drivers embarking on getaway trips compete for road space with commuters and business traffic.
Transport analysis company Inrix warned there are likely to be ‘daily delays of around 40 minutes’ between today and Christmas Eve on the M25 clockwise west of London.
It predicted the worst queues on the motorway network will be on the M25 clockwise between junction 7 (for the M23/Gatwick airport) and junction 16 (for the M40/Birmingham) today.
Drivers heading anti-clockwise between junction 17 (Rickmansworth) and junction 12 (for the M3) on the same day are also being warned to prepare for hold-ups.
Other motorway stretches identified as potential hotspots include the M1 north from Woburn, Bedfordshire to Daventry, Northamptonshire and the M6 south from Wigan, Greater Manchester to Stafford, Staffordshire.
During the weekend before Christmas, between 12pm and 2pm is expected to be the busiest time to travel on the roads.
Drivers are advised to set out before 11am or after 6pm to reduce the chance of being stuck in long queues.
National Highways said it will remove more than 1,000 miles of roadworks on England’s motorways and major A roads.
That means more than 98 per cent of its network will be free of roadworks until January 2.
RAC spokeswoman Alice Simpson said: ‘Since Christmas falls on a Monday this year, there’s no need for drivers to use annual leave for getaway trips as they can travel over the weekend before.
‘For that very reason, our research suggests these days will be the busiest times to drive, so we urge people to set off as early as possible on Saturday and Sunday.’
She advised drivers to carry out vehicle checks before setting off, such as on tyres, fuel, oil, coolant and screenwash.
Inrix transportation analyst Bob Pishue said: ‘Our recommendation is to avoid peak commuting hours and use traffic apps to minimise holiday travel traffic frustrations.’
Rail services will also be disrupted over the festive period due to Network Rail carrying out engineering work.
London Paddington will be closed between Christmas Eve and Wednesday December 27, meaning no mainline trains will serve Heathrow Airport during that period.
Long-distance services will start and end at Reading, with connecting trains to and from Ealing Broadway or London Waterloo.
The most-booked intercity train over the festive period is believed to be the Great Western Railway service from London Paddington to Penzance at 10.03am tomorrow.
London King’s Cross will be closed on Christmas Eve.
Southeastern services that usually operate to or from London Victoria will be diverted to Blackfriars, Charing Cross and Cannon Street between tomorrow and New Year’s Day.
Outside of the capital, an engineering project near Southampton will see some disruption to services, as will work to build the new Cambridge South station.
No trains will operate on Christmas Day, with a very limited service running on Boxing Day.
Lawrence Bowman, network strategy director for Network Rail, said: ‘We understand how important this time of year is for our passengers for reconnecting with family and friends.
‘With more than 96 per cent of the network open for business as usual, we have tried as far as possible to design our investment projects around our passengers and keep disruption to a minimum.
‘We are carrying out some significant projects, not as many as past years, but still some £127million of investment ranging from laying new track, installing new bridges and making improvements to stations so that passengers can benefit from better and more reliable services and facilities.
‘We plan our Christmas engineering programmes months – and in some cases years, in advance and target the quietest times, overnight, weekends and Christmas Day and Boxing Day to ensure we keep what disruption there is to an absolute minimum and will always looks to use diversions rather than put people on buses.
‘But some routes will see disruption as we upgrade the railway, so it’s important that passengers check their journeys before travelling.’
Airports will be busy with many people heading overseas for festive holidays or arriving in the UK to spend Christmas with loved ones.
Heathrow Airport expects 6.5million passengers will travel through its terminals this month, with tens of thousands departing on Christmas Day.
Friday also saw pressure on Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool airports, with passengers warned over long queues for security.
East Midlands, London Stansted and Manchester airports are set to be busiest on Saturday.
Meanwhile, National Express coaches are most in demand on Saturday, while rival operators Flixbus and Megabus say they are equally busy.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
