Travel news live: Christmas getaway delays as snow hits M62 and trains, ferries and flights cancelled

Douglas Cairns, from Transport Scotland, said road, rail, air and ferry services are “all likely to be affected by the conditions” with possible longer journey times, cancellations and restrictions on bridges.

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company said its 7.45pm Saturday ferry service from Douglas, Isle of Man to Heysham, Lancashire was cancelled due to the “forecast adverse weather”, along with its 2.15am Sunday service from Heysham to Douglas.

CalMac, which operates ferries to the west coast of Scotland, said possible disruptions and cancellations could affect each of its planned services for Saturday.

The RAC has urged Christmas getaway travellers to “be patient” on the roads and highlighted the M25, M4 and M5 as “crunch points” for delays.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis said: “Anyone travelling now, I’m looking at the maps, you’ve got a lot of the road largely to yourself.

“But we are expecting things to build up through the course of the morning … If you’re packing up now, this is a good time to travel. There’s a core of about 11 o’clock this morning and between about four and six this afternoon, that’s the core time where we expect the traffic to be heavier.”

When asked if there are particular crunch points of delays the RAC is worried about, Mr Dennis said: “Yeah, I wouldn’t say worried about. I think this is the thing people are going to be well used to, where they’re not able to tear all the cones out and open all the lanes.

“Obviously there’s stretches of the northern part of the M25, part of the M4, the M5, a lot of routes people use for the sorts of journeys they’re going to make ahead of Christmas where they just can’t open all the lanes back up again. So, there’s those to bear in mind.

“What we’re saying to people is just be patient. These are journeys that matter to us this time of year. Just don’t expect to get there the minute your sat-nav says it will. Allow yourself a bit of time to make it easy and get there safely.”

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Rebekah Hicks said: “We’ll start to see high pressure to the south of the UK bringing in more settled and much milder conditions from Christmas Eve.

“Christmas Day itself will be cloudy for most, although some eastern areas of the UK, most likely eastern Scotland, may see some clear or sunny spells.

“We could see some drizzle across hills in the west, and some more persistent rain is possible for north-west Scotland, but overall it will be a fairly cloudy, nondescript day.

“Conditions on Christmas Day and Boxing Day look to be exceptionally mild for the time of year, especially in the north.

“East and north-east Scotland, for example, could see overnight temperatures that are 10C above average on Christmas morning.”

Weather warnings for wind have come into force across much of the UK as millions more people get away for Christmas.

Roads and public transport could be disrupted by strong gusts as the Met Office forecast a wet and windy weekend for many.

The AA predicted 23.7 million drivers would hit the road on Friday, making it the busiest day on the roads since the group’s records began in 2010.

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The Met Office has warned of severe coastal gales, with other regions of the UK enduing heavy showers and thunder on Saturday.

A post on X read: “Windy on Saturday morning with severe coastal gales in the northwest and a risk of damaging gusts in northwest Scotland later.

“Rain moving southeast with colder and brighter weather following giving a mixture of sunny spells and heavy showers, perhaps with hail and thunder.”

The RAC estimated seven million leisure trips will be made on major roads during the weekend, which excludes everyday traffic.

It predicted that congestion hotspots will be on both directions of the M1 to Gatwick via the M25 and the M23; Liverpool to Chester on the M53; Oxford to the south coast via the A34 and the M3; the M25 to the south coast along the M3; and at the Taunton to Almondsbury Interchange in Bristol heading down the M5.

RAC spokesman Rod Dennis said: “With the weekend bringing a mix of strong winds along with heavy, and in some places wintry, showers, it’s going to make many of the estimated seven million getaway trips by car a pretty exhausting experience.”

British Airways has cancelled at least 26 flights to and from London Heathrow airport. According to the airline’s website, domestic departures to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester are grounded, along with European links to and from Barcelona, Munich, Rome and elsewhere.

Two BA round-trips from London Heathrow to Dublin have been cancelled, adding to pressure on fares to the Irish capital. With seats scarce – and the main Holyhead-Dublin ferry link out of action for at least three weeks – fares are soaring.

It appears the last seats on the only available British Airways flight from Heathrow to Dublin, at 8.30am, sold at £462, and no more seats are available on the route all day.

Three Ryanair flights from Gatwick to Dublin are selling at £500 or more, though others are available at £260.

The Dutch airline KLM has cancelled one round-trip from Amsterdam to Heathrow, and Swiss has done the same from Zurich.

For the first Sunday this month, Great Western Railway (GWR) plans to run all its planned trains linking London Paddington with South Wales and the West of England on 22 December. Many staff are not obliged to work on Sundays, and for the first three Sundays of December dozens of trains were cancelled as crew decided not to accept overtime shifts.

But The Independent understands that overtime rates increase close to Christmas, incentivising more staff to work on their rest days.

Great Western Railway said: “We’re expecting to operate our full advertised timetable on Sunday 22 December.”

But from Christmas Day to Sunday, 29 December, GWR services will not run into Paddington due to work on HS2 near the London terminus. Some trains will be re-routed to and from London Euston.

No trains will run on the Midland Main Line north from London St Pancras International to Luton (including the airport), Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield from today to 29 December inclusive due to the replacement of the Agar Grove railway bridge in Camden, north London.

St Pancras is the eighth-busiest station in the UK, with over 90,000 passengers a day.

Hourly East Midlands trains are running from Sheffield, Corby and Nottingham as far south as Bedford, for rail-replacement

buses to Milton Keynes Central – connecting to the West Coast main line, and therefore London Euston.

Thameslink trains, which normally connect Gatwick and Luton airports via central London, are severely affected, with shuttles running south and north of London St Pancras.

Eurostar links to Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, as well as Southeastern trains to Kent, are unaffected by the closure.

The RAC is calling 21 December “snarl-up Saturday,” and says the heaviest traffic will be between 1 and 6pm.

The AA also warns Saturday 21 and Monday 23 December will be extremely busy, with 22.7 million on each day. It has issued amber warnings for 21 and 23 December, “due to the volume of congestion predicted”.

Motorways near big shopping venues will be busy, especially the M25 around Bluewater in Kent, the M1 in the vicinity of Meadowhall near Sheffield in South Yorkshire and the M60 around the Trafford Centre west of Manchester.

By “messy Monday,” 23 December, additional congestion is expected on:

- M1 from Luton to Northampton

- M5 from Bristol to Taunton

- A303 around Stonehenge

- M42 between the M40 and M6 interchanges

- A64 around York

The RAC predicts the busiest single getaway day for motorists will be Christmas Eve, with peak time 10am-4pm. That evening, multiple closures of rail lines for engineering work begin – meaning more road traffic that there would otherwise be, as travellers have little choice but to drive.