Brits face more travel chaos as they flock home after Easter break
The UK is bracing for more travel disruption as millions of Brits are expected to return today from their holidays.
According to the RAC, around 3.96 million motorists will get on the road, causing delays of many major arteries, while thousands of people reported “nightmare queues” at Paris Gare du Nord’s Eurostar gates following an IT control failure.
“Eurostar terminal in Paris at a standstill this morning due to a national software failure, nobody is being checked in,” tweeted former Guardian journalist Andrew Clark earlier this morning while another user called the situation “absolute carnage” and “organised chaos.”
The railway operator apologised for the “impact this [the delay] might have on your plans,” asking customers to refer to the live trains’ page for updates.
Works across the UK rail network might disruption for those who decided to travel domestically.
Network Rail has carried 530 upgrades worth £83m throughout the weekend, meaning routes such as Avanti West Coast’s services between London Euston and Milton Keynes were closed.
Trains between Gatwick airport and Redhill were reduced to one per hour due to enhancement works at the airport’s station.
On top of already planned disruptions, Thameslink today warned passengers of delays and disruption on London services due to a broken rail at St Pancras.
“We are expecting disruption to last throughout the day, however we are hoping the length of the delays will decrease,” the railway operator replied to a customer via Twitter.
Travellers have complained about hour-long queues also at airports such as Manchester, Gatwick and Heathrow, where Covid-induced staff shortages have created a wreckage over the last 10 days, hitting British Airways (BA), easyJet and TUI the most.
Domestic as well as EU connections were cancelled, with around 20 London-Scotland flights cancelled by both BA and easyJet. The flag carrier was also forced to slash flights between Heathrow and EU getaways such as Paris and Amsterdam.