Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
All indications are that the festive holiday season in, around and beyond the UK will be the busiest this decade, setting new records at transport pressure points.
What will this mean for your travel? Independent Dozens of organizations have been consulted to organize this Christmas travel special.
road
Assessing data from both the AA and RAC, Monday 22 December is expected to see the worst delays on UK roads before Christmas with a combination of commuter, business and getaway traffic. The RAC says the worst time to travel is between 10am and 5pm.
Major areas of congestion are:
- M25, especially between M4 heathrow and the M1, plus near Bluewater in Kent.
- M4 from the M5 junction near Bristol to Cardiff.
- The M5 is also south of Bristol and close to the M6 junction in the West Midlands.
- M6 via the West Midlands from the M42 junction to Wolverhampton
- M60 around Manchester, near Trafford Center and between Junction 7 (Altrincham) and the M62 junction
The RAC says: “The busiest day for holidaymakers during this period is Christmas Eve, when traffic volumes may be at their highest since Covid.” About 4.2 million migration trips are expected, but regular travel will be much lighter.
RAC says the best time to travel will be before 11am on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
In addition, the M27 in Hampshire will be closed between junctions 9 and 11 from 8pm on 24 December until 4am on 4 January.
Christmas Day will be the best driving day in the whole of the UK.
Air
During the 17 days of festivities from December 19 to January 4, Cirium’s aviation analysts report that 42,046 flights are scheduled to depart from UK airports with a total of 7.8 million seats. It averages more than 100 take-offs per hour with approximately 20,000 seats.
Departures have increased by 2 percent compared to the festive period in 2024, and departure seats available have increased by 4 percent year on year.
London Heathrow has the highest number of flights, with one in five flights originating from the UK’s busiest hub. It, like Birmingham and Manchester, is expecting its busiest Christmas ever.
According to Cirium, 889 flights are scheduled to depart from UK airports on Christmas Day. This figure is 10 percent more in 2024 and one-third more than the pre-pandemic peak in 2019.
Some specific peaks identified by The Independent are:
- Bristol: 28 December, with high pressure arriving on 2 and 4 January.
- Edinburgh: The busiest day overall is 29 December, with 28 December and 2 January also being busy.
- Luton: 28 December
- Manchester: 28 December
Top destinations from several airports will be:
- alicante
- amsterdam
- Dubai
- dublin
- geneva
- paris cdg
- tenerife
Passengers have been warned about this unintentional violation of aviation safety rules With items like Christmas crackers and snow globes.
UK passport holders are reporting long waits at some Schengen area borders across Europe. sunday morning, Michelle Roux posted on (formerly Twitter): “Current queue at Lyon passport control 120 minutes, children crying, anger boiling, bloody brakes****.”
Rail
Monday 22 December will be the railway’s busiest day before Christmas. While individual lines are likely to vary – especially after Christmas when there is widespread network rail Engineering work has begun – passengers are more or less guaranteed uncrowded travel on 24 and 31 December, as well as on New Year’s Day.
Trainline data indicates that the three busiest routes are to and from London Euston, serving Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly and Milton Keynes Central.
The worst rail disruption is currently in Cornwall. The line between Par and Newquay is closed due to flooding, with trains being replaced by taxis. There is a possibility of disruption till afternoon. The branch from Liskeard to Looe is also flooded, with minibuses replacing trains. And power outages have affected the signaling system between Penzance and St Erth.
But cross country Trains, which serves England, Wales and Scotland through its hub at Birmingham New Street, has had several trains canceled or reduced “due to constraints on train crew availability”. This will particularly affect the link from Nottingham to Cardiff. Cancellations and curtailments on cross country trains are likely to continue in the coming days.
The best day to visit before Christmas is Wednesday 24 December to avoid the crowds. Be aware, however, that services close early: the last London-Edinburgh train leaves at 4.30pm on Christmas Eve, while the last Newcastle-Birmingham departure is at 5.40pm.
In the UK, no trains run on Christmas Day and very few trains run on Boxing Day.
There will be a surge when intercity services resume after Christmas, on Saturday 27 December. Some major lines will be closed, which will put pressure on other routes.
New Year’s Eve will be quiet, with still fewer passengers on New Year’s Day – although almost no trains will run in Scotland on January 1.
Crowds will swell again on Friday 2 January, with Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 January being the final weekend of the festive season, with large numbers of passengers attending, many of them displaced onto other lines. network rail Engineering work.
West Coast Main LineThe line, which links London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, northern Wales and southern Scotland, will remain closed on the key section from Milton Keynes to Rugby until January 5 for the replacement of a junction at Hanslop in Buckinghamshire.
Further north, the West Coast Main Line between Preston and Carlisle will be closed from New Year’s Eve until 15 January, and a The shuttle service will link the two cities via the scenic Settle and Carlisle Railway,
One of the busiest stations in the UK, London Waterloo will be closed from the end of Christmas Eve services until Sunday 28 December Including.
No trains will run on the main line between Leeds and York until services resume on 3 January.
bus and coach
Both Flixbus and National Express are running extra journeys on key dates and routes, aimed specifically at helping passengers affected by rail engineering closures. Coach companies will be running hundreds of services on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, when some trains will run.
Most local bus services will be closed across the country on December 25. The long-term champion of bus travel on Christmas Day is the Isle of Wight. Local company Southern Vectis says December 25 will see “a special Christmas timetable on routes 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9”.
boat
At the port of Dover, there is a 30-minute wait at French border control on Monday morning.
The port is urging drivers to arrive no more than two hours before their scheduled departure. Unlike aviation, there is no penalty for missing the ferry at Dover due to overcrowding; You will simply be rebooked onto the next available sailing free of charge.
The last departure from Dover before Christmas on 24th December will be at 3.05pm on P&O Ferries bound for Calais. Last arrival from the French port is at 3.45 pm. The port will be closed until the first sailing from DFDS to Calais at 9.10am on Boxing Day.
On the Caledonian MacBrayne network in western Scotland, ferries are running as normal on Monday. No CalMac vessels will operate on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day.
This article is kept updated with the latest information
Read more: Rail passenger offered £10k compensation for 18-minute train delay