Christmas getaway travel disruption is expected to continue throughout the weekend, with millions of car journeys under way and major London railway stations due to close on Sunday.
The AA estimated that 16.4m car journeys will take place on Saturday and warned of “lengthy jams”.
Rail disruption is likely on Christmas Eve as two of London’s railway stations, King’s Cross and Paddington, will be shut due to engineering works.
The closure of London Paddington will continue until Wednesday, meaning no mainline trains will serve Heathrow Airport.
Travellers crossing the Channel at the Port of Dover faced waiting times of 90 minutes at border control on Saturday morning, but the queues have since cleared.
An unscheduled strike by French Eurotunnel workers in a row over bonuses on Thursday led to the cancellation of about 30 Eurostar trains – leaving tens of thousands of travellers scrambling to replan their journeys.
P&O Ferries apologised for the delays, telling customers: “There are currently large queues at border control. Please allow additional time for your journey. Rest assured, if you miss your crossing, we’ll get you on ASAP.”
On the rail network, disruption continued after the chaos caused by Storm Pia on Thursday. The Elizabeth line on the underground had severe delays on Friday afternoon between London Paddington, Reading and Heathrow airport stations after two trains broke down.
Network Rail said disruption was expected between Mansfield and Worksop until the end of the day, as well as between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley, caused by damage to the overhead electric wires in the Aston area of Birmingham.
The Met Office said there could be more weather-related travel issues in parts of the UK this weekend. Winds of up to 70mph were expected to hit much of Scotland, as well as northern and central areas of England on Sunday, before a rainy Christmas Day. Yellow wind warnings had been issued for those regions, advising people to expect travel disruption and damage to buildings and power cuts.
A yellow warning for rain covered much of Wales on Sunday, with forecasters warning flooding and travel disruption was possible. Showers may fall across the rest of the country.
Meteorologist Liam Eslick said: “People should make sure to leave more time, especially in exposed areas, it could affect rail networks and ferries.
“People travelling on roads should take care and stay away from high-sided vehicles, and for people who are at home and are going for walks, stay away from coasts.”
Network Rail said severe weather was likely to affect some ScotRail routes on Saturday.
A very damp start in the north during Saturday morning, with snow in the far northeast of Scotland 🌨️
— Met Office (@metoffice) December 22, 2023
Elsewhere, largely dry with some upslope rain and drizzle in the west ☁️
Another windy start and feeling mild away from northeast Scotland 🌬️ pic.twitter.com/sUfvbGAQI3
Rod Dennis, an RAC spokesperson, said: “With this latest weather warning affecting a large area of Scotland and parts of northern England, there is the chance travellers’ last-minute getaway trips could be disrupted.”
Eurostar, which operates passenger services to and from London St Pancras, is operating two extra services a day between London and Paris up to and including Christmas Eve to help people whose trains were cancelled on Thursday.
Eurotunnel is running its usual timetable but is only accepting customers who have pre-booked.
Network Rail advised travellers to check timetables before they embarked on their journeys as “some train services will be affected while we work to improve the railway”.
