Travel news – live: Christmas warning issued amid train, airport and National Highways strikes
Families are being urged to set their Christmas travel plans in motion “as soon as possible” as a four-day motorway strike set to coincide with a fresh wave of rail walkouts threatens travel mayhem over the festive period.
National Highways workers will go on strike from today until Christmas Day in the latest phase of industrial action by the biggest civil service union ahead of the Christmas weekend.
The strike involves members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) working as on-road traffic officers and regional operating centre operatives, in London and southeast England.
From Friday, industrial action on Britain’s rail network will mean some train services will stop before national strikes starting on Saturday, Christmas Eve.
The Independent’s Simon Calder has urged drivers to hit the roads as “soon as you possibly can”, saying: “I’ve never known a Christmas quite like this for travel stress.
“Towards the end of the week and on Christmas Day it’s going to get very very tricky, with the roads being very crowded.
“And the railways – well, services will end either on Friday night or pretty early on Saturday.”
