Britain braces for big Christmas getaway amid weather warning
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Airports, train operators and motoring bodies forecast traveller numbers unseen since before pandemic. Britain’s biggest festive getaway in years was set to start on Friday, as millions of people took to road, rail and skies to see thei loved ones over Christmas.
Airports, train operators and motoring organisations have all forecast traveller numbers unseen since before the pandemic. With warnings of a seasonal brew of grim weather and rail replacement buses ahead from Saturday, travel was expected to peak on Friday. The Met Office has issued a yellow warning across much of Britain for strong winds and likely potential disruption to roads, rail, air and sea travel, on Saturday and Sunday.
Congestion was expected to be at its worst on Friday, according to motoring organisations, with the AA’s member surveys pointing to an estimated 23.7m cars on the road – the highest for Christmas traffic since it started logging the data in 2010. Drivers were most likely to get stuck in motorway traffic jams on the classic annual congestion hotspots, they said: the M4/M5 interchange near Bristol, the M25 near Heathrow, Birmingham’s M5/M6 interchange, the M4 around Cardiff and Newport, and in Scotland, the M8 between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Rail passengers have been urged to book seats, plan ahead but check for changes with a very busy few days of travel expected, and more people using the trains than last year. Immediate disruption this weekend includes the start of nine days of work affecting services between London St Pancras and Bedford – meaning Thameslink and East Midlands passengers will need to use buses or go via other routes from the capital.
