If you’re in the UK or are planning to come to the UK, expect things to take a little longer – or be prepared to make alternative travel plans, as a number of strikes are about to hit.
UK Border Strike
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is calling out its members on strike over the holiday period. It will impact the following ports of entry:
- London Heathrow
- London Gatwick
- Manchester Airport
- Birmingham Airport
- Cardiff Airport
- Glasgow airports
- Port of Newhaven
They will strike on December 23, 24, 25, 26 28, 29 and 30 and 31.
Expect long waits to clear passport control as whoever is going to be filling in (currently, the army) attempts to clear people.
If you’re transiting the UK, this won’t impact you directly, however, if queuing breaks down, you make be kept on an aircraft to wait until the queues die down.
Eurostar
If you have Christmas or New Year getaways with Eurostar, you might want to check your tickets. A number of trains have been cancelled on the 23rd and 24th of December, with the service being suspended on the 26th of December.
Our coverage is here. You can find the latest Eurostar changes at https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/service-information/eurostar-travel-updates
Trains
Onto the train network, which is suffering a lot of industrial action still. There is currently an overtime ban by RMT Union workers – which is leading to short-notice cancellations.
In addition, the RMT Union is also having a full strike between 18:00 on Saturday 24 December and 06:00 on Tuesday 27 December 2022.
This has major implications -for example, the last train leaving London King’s Cross for Edinburgh will leave as soon as 11:00, with the last trains finishing around 15:00. Examples given by Network Rail include:
| Edinburgh | Leeds | Newcastle | York | |
| From London | 11.00 am | 12.30 pm | 11.00 am | 11:06 am |
| To London | 8.00 am | 10.45 am | 10.22 am | 10:32 am |
No onward travel options will be provided (coach or otherwise). If you are stuck, you are stuck.
You are strongly advised to travel the day before, Those who absolutely need to travel by train should check their journey, set off as early as possible and expect disruption.
And this isn’t the end of it, with strikes projected to go on well into the new year.
We’ll have further rail coverage this week. In the meantime, head to https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/313575.aspx
Roads
If you’re thinking its time to warm up the car, or plan to take a hire car, National Highways is having a strike at the moment, covering the following regions
- London and South East – All traffic officer service employees on 22, 23, 24 and 25 December 2022.
- West Midlands and South West – All traffic officer service employees on 30 and 31 December 2022.
- All National Highways workplaces – All traffic officer service employees at all National Highways workplaces on 3 and 4 January 2023.
- East Midlands and Easter – All traffic officer service employees on 6 and 7 January 2023.
Expect delays if there are incidents on the road and fire up Google Maps/Apple Maps/Waze/TomTom, etc to ensure you’re on the best route
Patience and planning will be needed
Holiday travel can be… stressful at the best of times. This year’s strikes are going to make life a lot more difficult than it normally is.
If you do have travel plans, ensure you have at least one backup plan. Maybe two.
Any way you travel home for Christmas could be stressful.
Just remember, please be patient with those around you – everyone else is trying to get somewhere for the big days. A bit of compassion won’t go amiss this season.
In the meantime, all we can hope is that peace breaks out and some of these strikes are cancelled.
Further Coverage from Economy Class and Beyond
There’s a lot more coverage over the next few days – especially for those of you arriving between the 24th and 27th. Well have up-to-date guides
- London Access guide by Rail during the holiday (Wednesday/Thursday)
- Your Rail Guide for the Christmas holiday (Wednesday)
We’ll try and keep you up to date during the holidays.
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