How to travel this Christmas and final train times as strikes disrupt rail, flights and roads

Millions of people embarking on Christmas getaways face disruption from strikes and congestion.

Travellers are being warned to prepare for disruption as they embark on journeys to spend Christmas with friends and family, amid Border Force and rail strike action.

The AA said Friday will be the busiest day on the roads this week, with an estimated 16.9 million journeys being made across the UK.

A further 16.6 million journeys are expected to be made on Christmas Eve, when the latest round of rail strikes launch.

When is the last time to catch a train on Christmas Eve during the rail strikes?

Congestion will be increased due to a strike by thousands of members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Network Rail causing train services to finish at around 3pm on Saturday.

Members of the RMT union will walk out on Christmas Eve until 6am on December 27.

Passengers are being urged only to travel on Christmas Eve “if absolutely necessary,” and check the final train times for their journey area.

Trains will stop running at around 3pm on Christmas Eve in most locations.

But examples of some earlier last train departure times include 10.45am from Leeds to London, 11am from London to Edinburgh and 12.48pm from London to Manchester.

National Rail has published advice for Christmas period train passengers on the latest disruption updates and how to check their journeys.

How busy will the roads be over Christmas?

The AA expects 16.9 million road journeys will be made across the UK on Friday, December 23, with a further 16.6 million on Christmas Eve.

Rail strikes are expected to make traffic jams worse. An RAC survey indicated that nearly half of people affected by rail strikes this month planned to drive themselves or get a lift from someone else.

Drivers on the M25, the M60 near Manchester, the M6 in north-west England and the M40 in Oxfordshire have been warned they are all likely to be stuck in long queues.

When is the the Border Force strike and who does it affect?

Around 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union who operate passport booths for Border Force will walk out at Heathrow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester airports.

More than 250,000 passengers arriving at UK airports on Friday, December 23, have been warned to expect delays due to the strikes.

Strikes will be held every day from Friday to the end of the year, except December 27.

In preparation for the industrial action, military personnel and volunteers from the Civil Service have been trained to check passports.

The contingency workers are expected to do the role less efficiently than the striking Border Force officials, which could result in long queues in arrivals halls.

It is also feared that if queues in immigration halls get too long then arriving passengers could be held on planes, preventing subsequent departures from taking off on time.

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