The travel chaos endured by many people over the Christmas holiday period look set to extend over the New Year period, with Rail companies warning that engineering works and driver shortages likely to lead to significant numbers of train cancellations over the weekend. As a result they are encouraging passengers who want to avoid missing New Year events to travel today rather than tomorrow or on New Year’s Eve.
This comes on top of the damage caused by Storm Gerrit which led to flooding and fallen trees across the network. Yesterday also saw a fatality on the Great Western line from London to the South West and Wales which caused the line to be closed between Paddington and Reading during the first half of the day, also cutting off train services to Heathrow Airport from Paddington.
Cross Country, Chiltern Railways, which runs between London Marylebone to Oxford and Birmingham, and Nothern Rail are among the operators to have stated that they expect disruption on New Year’s Eve and have urged passengers to travel today instead.
Travellers also face continued problems arising from the storms that have battered the country this week, with flooding having been responsible for the deaths of three people having died in North Yorkshire after a 4×4 became trapped in a river. A tornado, classified as level 5 or “intense”, hit Manchester. It caused damage to almost 100 homes in Manchester, with some almost entirely destroyed. In Scotland more than 14,000 people are now without power after the storm having damaged power lines, with energy companies advising that it may take up to 48 hours for power to be restored.
The railways were also affected by the storm with Avanti West Coast, Scot Rail and LNER all forced to suspend or terminate services. All three have urged passengers not to travel. At the ports, Brittany Ferries cancelled its Portsmouth to Cherbourg service and DFDS ferries from Dover have been subject to lengthy delays. The airports also have not escaped the problems, with Heathrow cancelling 18 flights to Europe and elsewhere in the UK because of air traffic control restrictions.
By mid-morning today, the Western half of the M25 was already subject to very heavy traffic volumes and National Highways had issued delay alerts for almost the entire section between Junctions 10 (the A3) and 21 (the M1) and congestion and delays are likely across the entire motorway network.