Christmas travel: Grant Shapps issues warning about journeys

Great Western Railway (GWR) which runs busy services between London and the Southwest out of Paddington Station said one in four of its drivers rostered to be working over Christmas were either ill or self-isolating after coming into contact with a colleague who tested positive. The operator said more than 50 of its staff were out of action overall and has already started making cancellations.

GWR are not currently anticipating being able to run the service that they thought that they would

Sir Peter Hendy

Passengers are being shunted onto alternative services where possible, raising fears of overcrowding on the available trains.

Boris Johnson’s Christmas transport tsar Sir Peter Hendy said passengers attempting to book tickets with GWR would be advised to use coach services instead.

Sir Peter told MPs: “GWR are not currently anticipating being able to run the service that they thought that they would.

“In consequence, if you do try to book an advance ticket to the west of England, I’m hoping their website will tell you to go to National Express because actually they’re not currently wanting to take any more advance bookings.

“That’s a consequence of the transport industry not having an unlimited supply of people.

“There still will be some trains but they are right not to book people on trains they don’t think they will have any drivers for.”

We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Sir Peter urged Christmas travellers to book their tickets early and avoid long-distance journeys but played down previous predictions of chaos on the railways, claiming 80 per cent of journeys would be by road.

But train travellers have been warned to prepare for disruption with engineering work scheduled to be carried out by Network Rail from December 23 to January 4.

Projects include track renewals, bridge replacements and improvements to signalling and overhead line equipment.

Most of the railway will stay open but some lines will be closed to allow the work to take place.

London King’s Cross station will be closed for six days from Christmas Day as a £1.2 billion upgrade of the East Coast Main Line continues.

London North Eastern Railway is warning that “alternative routes will likely be very busy and should also be avoided”.

The operator, which runs trains between the capital and Scotland, is also telling passengers to “avoid travel” on Christmas Eve and December 31 to January 3 because “services will be very busy with reduced capacity”.

Network Rail said there will be a “significantly reduced service” at London Waterloo – the UK’s busiest railway station – between Christmas Day and January 3.

This is to enable work to be carried out on lines approaching the station in a bid to improve punctuality.

Vauxhall and Queenstown Road stations will be closed over the period as part of the same project.

The installation of a new signal gantry will disrupt services through Bristol Temple Meads from December 27 until January 10.

DON’T MISS
How to make the most out of the Covid-Xmas, says VIRGINIA BLACKBURN[COMMENT]
Christmas rules: Boris Johnson’s advice in full[FOCUS]
Row erupts at Patel grilled over why public ‘not trusted'[VIDEO]

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps last month urged people to consider alternative travel plans because of the rail network’s “limitations”.

Mr Shapps warned of major engineering work across the country’s railways and a lack of capacity because of social distancing regulations.

And he advised travellers to to “look very carefully at the transport route they take” when planning Christmas trips.

Source: Read Full Article