Rail, road and flight disruptions expected in New Year

The year is coming to an end after tens of thousands of travelers lost their seats following the temporary closure of the Channel Tunnel on December 30. More broadly, what is the outlook for travelers, with or without cars? These are key questions.

rail

eurostar

Tens of thousands of passengers who had planned to travel on Eurostar woke up yesterday on New Year’s Eve only to find themselves somewhere they least expected. On Tuesday 30 December, 30 trains connecting London with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam were cancelled. Passengers were told to rebook, but it appeared many were simply abandoning their New Year journeys.

Problems began when a power outage occurred in a tunnel between Folkestone and Calais in the early hours of Tuesday morning. There is an elaborate response to this, namely single-track running: a series of services, including LeShuttle carriage trains, freight trains and Eurostar passenger services, running in one direction. When they are all passed, the train moves in the opposite direction. It slows everything down, but people and goods eventually get through.

But then a LeShuttle train broke down and everything came to a standstill. Initially, Eurostar sent trains to the Channel Tunnel in the hope of clearing the blockage. But by late morning, the train company had returned them to their point of departure and urged passengers not to attempt the journey. Trains resumed service around 4 p.m., but by then many people had given up.

Passengers who boarded the night’s last train from London to Paris at 7:01 a.m. arrived in the French capital a full 12 hours late. Eurostar has yet to comment on the journey, but Eurotunnel said it was not responsible for what it called the “nighttime incident on the UK network”.

On New Year’s Eve, Eurostar passengers at London’s St Pancras International Airport were told: “Due to problems with the Eurotunnel, our trains may be severely delayed. We apologize for the inconvenience caused.”

Channel Tunnel Passenger Rail has added an extra train from London to Paris in an effort to clear a backlog of some 25,000 passengers after Eurostar trains were canceled on Tuesday.

Car transport service LeShuttle between Folkestone and Calais has resumed, with delays. On Wednesday morning, Eurotunnel, which handles vehicle transport operations, said: “Following power supply issues, our teams are working hard to restore our services as quickly as possible. We deeply apologize and thank our customers for their patience.”

east coast main line

There are multiple problems with the line connecting London’s King’s Cross station to Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland. Emergency services are dealing with an incident between London and Stevenage where all lines are blocked.

There are delays on LNER and Lumo trains between Newcastle and Edinburgh, as well as Grand Central, Hull and Great Northern trains. Cancellations may begin soon.

An earlier incident involving trespassers blocking all lines on the Northallerton Railway has ended, but delays continue.

engineering work

widely network rail Engineering work is ongoing. Some major stations and lines will be closed, putting pressure on other lines.

There will be no trains to and from London’s Liverpool Street station, the UK’s busiest station, until January 2. The exception is Elizabeth Linewhich will allow travelers to reach Stratford Station – where many lines, including the Stansted Express, will start and end.

London’s Waterloo station, one of the UK’s other busiest stations, has reopened with reduced services after four days of engineering work.

Key sections of the West Coast Main Line, which connects London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, northern Wales and southern Scotland, will be closed from Milton Keynes and Rugby on and off January 4.

A key junction in Hanslop, south of Rugby, is being replaced. Rail replacement bus services will operate. There will also be pressure on the Chiltern Railway from London Marylebone to Birmingham, the East Coast Main Line from London’s King’s Cross station north and the East Midlands Line from London St Pancras.

west coast main line

Further north, the West Coast Main Line between Preston and Carlisle will be closed from New Year’s Eve until January 15. The shuttle service will connect the two cities via the scenic Settle-Carlisle railway.

There will be no trains running on the main line between Leeds and York until it opens on 3 January.

New Year’s Eve will be quiet and there will still be fewer passengers on New Year’s Day – although in Scotland there will be almost no trains running on January 1st.

Crowds will gather again on Friday 2 January, with the final weekend of the festive season on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 January seeing a huge influx of travelers, many of whom have been diverted to other lines due to Network Rail works.

road

The AA predicts New Year’s Day will be the quietest festive travel day, but some key locations likely to experience congestion over December 31 include:

Additionally, the M27 in Hampshire will be closed between junctions 9 and 11 until 4am on January 4.

ferry

Sailing between Dover, Calais and Dunkirk is normal. The port urges drivers not to arrive more than two hours before scheduled departure time.

Unlike air, there is no penalty for missing your ferry due to congestion at Dover; you can simply rebook for free. “If you miss your ferry, don’t worry,” the port told motorists. “You will be placed on the next available flight.”

Ferries on the Caledonian MacBrayne in west Scotland are operating mostly normally, with ferries between Ardrossan and Brodick on the Isle of Aran cancelled.

CalMac vessels will not operate on New Year’s Day and some services on January 2 will be “request only.”

Air

Nearly 500 Emirates passengers took off from London Heathrow to Dubai on Wednesday, December 31, but during the flight near Maidstone, Kent, the pilot decided to turn back due to a problem with the landing gear door. The Airbus A380 SuperJumbo circled Orpington for two hours, burning off fuel and landing safely, but it looks like passengers may be seeing it from Heathrow-area airport hotels in the New Year.

A spokesperson for the airline said: “Emirates flight EK002 departed London Heathrow (LHR) for Dubai as planned at 13:40 GMT on 31 December 2025, but returned to LHR shortly after takeoff due to a technical failure.

“The flight returned to LHR and passengers and crew disembarked safely. All passengers will be rebooked on future Emirates flights from LHR. Emirates deeply regrets any inconvenience caused, but the safety of passengers and crew is of paramount importance and will not be affected.”

At Lisbon Airport, bad weather delayed many flight arrivals and departures by two to three hours. EasyJet, one of the affected airlines, said: “Low visibility conditions require air traffic control [ATC] Reducing the number of aircraft currently flying in and out of the airport has resulted in air traffic control flight schedule delays, particularly inbound flights. “

Aviation analysts at Cirium report that 42,046 flights are expected to depart from UK airports during the 17-day festive period from December 19 to January 4, with a total of 7.8 million seats. On average, there are more than 100 departures per hour and the number of seats is nearly 20,000.

Compared with the 2024 holiday period, the number of departure flights has increased by 2%, and the number of available departure seats has increased by 4% year-on-year.

London heathrow airport The largest number of flights, with one in five departing from the UK’s busiest hub. Birmingham and Manchester Airports are expected to have their busiest festive season yet.

The top destinations at many airports are:

This article is always updated with the latest information.