Christmas travel: Train disruption continues as Met Office predicts snow and ice

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.

Road congestion is likely to peak on Friday – the last working day before Christmas Day – as drivers embarking on leisure trips competed for road space with commuters and business traffic.

The RAC 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.

Motorists were being advised to travel before 11am or after 6pm if possible to reduce the chance of being stuck in long queues.

Likely traffic hotspots on the M25 identified by transport analysis company Inrix include clockwise between junction 7 (for the M23/Gatwick Airport) and junction 16 (for the M40/Birmingham), and anti-clockwise between junction 17 (Rickmansworth) and junction 12 (for the M3).

Other motorway stretches expected to see long queues included the M1 north from Woburn, Bedfordshire, to Daventry, Northamptonshire, and the M6 south from Wigan, Greater Manchester, to Stafford, Staffordshire.

On Britain’s railways, Friday and Saturday are expected to be the busiest days of the festive season – with extra pressure on the key London terminals of Paddington and King’s Cross. Both intercity stations will be closed on Christmas Eve due to engineering work.

Tens of thousands of passengers on both the East Coast and West Coast main lines had their trains cancelled on Thursday due to the effects of Storm Pia and broken-down trains.

Dozens of trains in and out of London Euston and King’s Cross were axed.

The main East Coast rail firm, LNER, said: “We sincerely apologise for the impact to travel plans ahead of the festive period, due to the strong winds that affected LNER services on Thursday 21 December.”

Tickets from cancelled trains on Thursday can be used on any LNER services on Friday.

All peak ticket restrictions have been lifted by Avanti West Coast until Sunday 7 January, allowing passengers to travel using cheaper off-peak fares.