Britain’s public transport system has come back to life after a Christmas Day closedown – but only slowly and partially. So what are the prospects for travellers with or without a car? These are the key opportunities and problems.
Rail
Most rail services have been restored after the Christmas shutdown. But some problems are disrupting trains, especially on CrossCountry services. The network connects England, Wales and Scotland through its hub at Birmingham New Street. Some trains are cancelled or curtailed “due to a shortage of train drivers”.
On Monday 29 December, dozens of trains have been cancelled or curtailed, including links between Cardiff and Nottingham, Manchester and Bournemouth, and southwest England to Scotland.
The day begain badly with the 6.03am from Birmingham New Street to Edinburgh. The train was able to cover only 41 miles of its sceheduled 333-mile run to the Scottish capital, ending the journey at Derby. In addition, it was formed of only five coaches instead of nine.
A points failure southwest of Birmingham New Street is further delaying trains.
Widespread Network Rail engineering work is underway. Some key stations and lines will close, putting pressure on other routes.
No trains will run to or from the main London Liverpool Street station – the busiest in Britain – until 2 January. The exception is the Elizabeth line, which will enable travellers to reach Stratford station – where many links, including the Stansted Express, will start and end.
One of the UK’s other busiest stations, London Waterloo, has reopened with reduced service after four days of engineering work.
The West Coast Main Line, which connects London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, North Wales and southern Scotland, will be closed on the key stretch from Milton Keynes and Rugby up to and including 4 January.
A key junction at Hanslope, south of Rugby, is being replaced. Rail replacement bus services will operate. In addition, Chiltern Railway from London Marylebone to Birmingham, the East Coast Main Line north from London King’s Cross and the East Midlands line from London St Pancras will take the strain.
Further north, the West Coast Main Line between Preston and Carlisle will close from New Year’s Eve to 15 January inclusive. A shuttle service will connect the two cities via the scenic Settle & Carlisle Railway.
No trains will run on the main line between Leeds and York until the start of services on 3 January.
New Year’s Eve will be quiet, with New Year’s Day seeing fewer travellers still – though in Scotland, almost no trains will run on 1 January.
Crowds will build back on Friday 2 January, with the final weekend of the festive season on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 January seeing large numbers of travellers – many of them displaced to other lines by Network Rail engineering work.
Road
The AA predicts that before the big return to work on 5 January 2026 traffic will peak on 29 and 30 December.
New Year’s Day will be the quietest festive travel day.
Key locations for congestion are:
- M25, particularly between the M4 at Heathrow and the M1, plus near Bluewater in Kent
- M4 from M5 junction near Bristol to Cardiff
- M5 south of Bristol and also close to the M6 junction in the West Midlands
- M6 through the West Midlands from the M42 junction to Wolverhampton
- M60 around Manchester, near the Trafford Centre and between junction 7 (Altrincham) and the M62 junction
In addition, the M27 in Hampshire is closed between junctions 9 and 11 until 4am on 4 January.
Ferry
Drivers and foot passengers in western Scotland are facing a range of problems on Caledonian MacBrayne ferries. Services between Mallaig and Armadale in the south of Skye have been cancelled for a fourth day due to “a technical issue with MV Lochnevis’”. Links from Oban and Mallaig to South Uist are cancelled due to “a technical issue with MV Lord of the Isles”.
No Caledonian MacBrayne vessels will operate on New Year’s Day.
Sailings are running normally to and from the Port of Dover after the Christmas Day closedown. The port is urging drivers not to arrive more than two hours before their scheduled departure. Unlike aviation, there is no penalty for missing a ferry at Dover due to congestion; you will simply be rebooked free of charge. “If you missed your ferry, please don’t worry,” the port is telling motorists. “You’ll be put on the next available sailing.”
Air
Monday 29 December is set to be the busiest day of the festive season at Edinburgh airport.
Currently the main problems affecting travellers to and from eastern parts of North America. Extreme wintry weather has caused thousands of flights to be grounded since Christmas Day. Domestic links have been worst affected, but some services between the US, Canada and London Heathrow are cancelled or heavily delayed.
Under air passengers’ rights rules, travellers booked on UK airlines whose flights are cancelled are entitled to be flown to their destination as soon as possible on any carrier, and to be provided with meals and hotels until they get there. Those with tickets on US and Canadian airlines returning from North America have no such protection.
For a second night, passengers on a late-night easyJet from Malaga to the UK experienced a flight cancellation. On Saturday night a Manchester flight was cancelled due to “adverse weather” in the Spanish city. Passengers were told to find their own hotels. On Sunday night, a Gatwick service was grounded “due to a technical issue”. Hotel rooms were provided, and a replacement flight organised for 3pm on Monday afternoon – 18 hours behind schedule.
During the 17 days of the festive spell from 19 December to 4 January, aviation analysts at Cirium report 42,046 flights are scheduled to depart from UK airports with a total of 7.8 million seats. That is an average of more than 100 take-offs per hour, with almost 20,000 seats.
Departures are up 2 per cent compared with the festive period in 2024, and available departing seats up 4 per cent year on year.
London Heathrow has the highest number of flights, with one in five departures being from the UK’s busiest hub. It is expecting its busiest festive spell to date, as are Birmingham and Manchester airports.
The top destinations from many airports are:
- Alicante
- Amsterdam
- Dubai
- Dublin
- Geneva
- Paris CDG
- Tenerife
This article is kept updated with the latest information.
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