Motorists advised to travel late as delays at ports, trains and roads hit Christmas getaway
Holidaymakers will start to resume their Christmas getaways after an unexpected strike in France, which caused cross-Channel rail services to be suspended, came to an end. ITV News' Pablo Taylor reports
Long queues at the Port of Dover, motorway closures and train cancellations were causing delays and disruption as the Christmas getaway got underway.
Road congestion is likely to peak on Friday – the last working day before Christmas Day - with the RAC estimating 13.5 million leisure journeys by car would take place across the UK between Friday and Sunday, up 20% on the three days on the same day last year.
Motorists were advised to delay their journey until after 6pm to reduce the chance of being stuck in long queues.
On the trains, an unexpected strike by Eurotunnel French site staff on Thursday led to widespread disruption.
Eurostar, which operates passenger services to and from London St Pancras, said it will operate two extra services per day between London and Paris up to and including Christmas Eve to help people whose trains were cancelled on Thursday.
Passengers heading across the Channel also faced delays. The Port of Dover in Kent said it is taking about 90 minutes to process cars with pre-booked tickets due to a surge in demand for ferries after the Channel Tunnel rail link was closed on Thursday by strike action by French workers.
Vehicle-carrying train service Eurotunnel said it is running its usual timetable but is only accepting customers who have pre-booked.
The delays at Dover were affecting the roads, with the triggering of Operation Brock forcing the M20 to close in the coastbound direction between junctions 8 and 9.
The system directs lorries heading for mainland Europe onto the motorway's coast-bound carriageway.
National Highways said this was causing 45-minute delays.
The M62 is closed in both directions on the border of West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester following a serious collision.
Greater Manchester Police said it arrested the 19-year-old driver of the car on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.
On the domestic railway, disruption from strong winds remained following chaos caused by Storm Pia on Thursday.
No LNER trains are serving Inverness on Friday morning.
ScotRail services remain suspended between Inverness and Wick, Tain, Ardgay and Lairg.
Meanwhile, Southeastern said it was forced to cancel a number of trains due to “a shortage of available train crew”.
Services on the Sheerness line were suspended at 10am for the rest of the day, and there are cancellations on the high speed line to and from London St Pancras throughout the day.
Passengers hoping to travel from London Euston could continue to face disruption after services were cancelled on Thursday following damage to overhead electric wires.
Likely traffic hotspots on the M25 identified by transport analysis company Inrix include clockwise between junction 7 (for the M23/Gatwick Airport) and junction 16 (for the M40/Birmingham), and anti-clockwise between junction 17 (Rickmansworth) and junction 12 (for the M3).
Other motorway stretches expected to see long queues included the M1 north from Woburn, Bedfordshire, to Daventry, Northamptonshire, and the M6 south from Wigan, Greater Manchester, to Stafford, Staffordshire.
Network Rail is preparing to launch its festive engineering works, which will cause disruption to journeys.
London Paddington will be closed between Sunday and December 27, meaning no mainline trains will serve Heathrow Airport during that period.
London King’s Cross will also be closed on Christmas Eve.
Outside of the capital, an engineering project near Southampton will cause some disruption to services, as will work to build the new Cambridge South station.
No trains will operate on Christmas Day, while a very limited service will run on Boxing Day.
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