Christmas getaway could be hampered by freezing weather

The number of cars on the roads is expected to peak this evening, as people rush out for last minute shopping or set off home ahead of Christmas Eve.

With temperatures falling below zero across the UK last night, the Met Office has warned of black ice on the roads, as well as forecasting some snow showers for the northeast and southeast.

The AA‘s Paul Watters said: “We are building up for a problematic day on the roads.” Yesterday, the roadside recovery group reported 21,000 call outs, and Mr Watters said it were not expecting today to be any quieter. The AA estimates that 18 million cars will take to the roads over the Christmas period, and it predicted today would be the busiest, with journey times doubling on main routes.

Darron Burness, head of special operations for the AA, added: “We expect to see traffic building from lunchtime with an extended evening rush-hour.”

The Highways Agency announced last week it would suspend 64 miles of roadworks on motorways and A roads to help people trying to get away for the Christmas and New Year period.

Yesterday, David Cameron was given a tour of the Highways Agency‘s Control Centre, where he defended the government’s response to the problems caused by the weather.

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Pointing out that parts of England had seen temperatures drop as low as minus 19, Mr Cameron said: “Obviously we have had extreme weather events, with five inches of snow falling in an hour. There are some weather events it is very difficult to plan for.”

National Express plans to run 40 per cent more coach services than usual today, it has laid on 200 extra coaches and will carry 50,000 people.

Meanwhile, a Swedish group called ‘Carpool’ has set up a Facebook page for people stranded across Europe. Carpool Europe helps put people in touch to organise lift-shares – it was originally set up to help people stranded during the ash cloud mayhem in April.

Iraq to Scotland in four days

Graham Skinner relays his epic journey home, starting in Erbil, northern Iraq.
19th December
Erbil - Iraq depart 17.00 local time
Frankfurt - arrived 21.00 local time
Sent to a hotel around midnight as the connecting flight to London Heathrow was cancelled 
20th December 
Frankfurt - returned to airport 06.00 and queued up to be rebooked on the 20.10 flight to London Heathrow, at 19.30 that flight was cancelled and we again had to queue.
I was booked on a London City flight for 6.30 the next morning and sent to a hotel for the night 
21st December 
Frankfurt arrived at the airport at 05.30 to discover flight cancelled, offered a rebooking later in the day.
Having tried to find seats for all routes back to the UK 06.00 - I decided to give up on flying and take the train. 
That went to Rotterdam via Dusseldorf and Velno 11.00 transfer in Dusseldorf 13.00 transfer in Velno 15.00 arrived in Rotterdam 17.00 took a coach to the ferry port 21.00 departed on a ferry to Hull 
22nd December 
08.00 arrived in Hull 09.00 took a coach to York 10.30 took the train from York to Edinburgh. 
Changed trains in Edinburgh and reached Aberdeen around 17.00

Airports resume service

After days of chaos, Heathrow announced today that “most flights” would be operating. It also apologised once again to the thousands who have had their Christmas travel plans disrupted. Flights at Gatwick and London City are also reporting a return to normal service after days of cancellations and delays.

Dublin airport is currently closed and most airports are still warning their customers to check with their flight with their airline before setting off.

Heathrow, the world’s largest international airport, has been widely accused of not being prepared for the cold conditions, with the BMI chief executive claiming it “did not have enough de-icing fluid”.

A Heathrow spokesman strenuously denied the claim, calling it “categorically untrue that we have either run out of de-icer, failed to order enough de-icer or accepted de-icer supplies from the Government”.

One couple, Paul and Sarah Lomax spent four days attempting to fly out of Heathrow to New York for Christmas. After finally giving up and cancelling their plans, they described the extraordinary scenes at Heathrow to Channel 4 News.

“(We) hope that this farce is never repeated, for Britain’s international reputation may never recover,” they said. Read the Lomax’s full story: Hell at Heathrow: one couple’s cancelled Christmas.

We saw a huge lack of contingency planning, slow decision making and lack of communication, Paul and Sarah Lomax

British Airways had to cancel more than 2,000 flights, but said it hoped today and Christmas Eve would see it operate a full long-haul departure from Heathrow. It would operate a normal schedule from Gatwick and London City Airports, it said.

Trains

The Eurostar is fully booked up to and including Christmas Eve. A spokesman told Channel 4 News it was running 90 per cent of its service. “There is virtually no queue in the station and we are carrying people to their final destination,” he added.

The Association of Train Operating Companies said some operators will be cutting their services by 25 per cent today.

While South West Trains is running a full service today, some services on the East coast and West Coast main lines have been cancelled, alongside some First Great Weston London to Cardiff services.

Northern Rail and ScotRail are both running a reduced service.