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As the busiest weekend of the year begins, with holiday-goers and Valentine’s Day travelers all trying to get around, a large number of people are encountering transportation difficulties.
Train travel in the UK will be challenging due to a combination of factors including flooding, engineering projects on the rail network, and the return of strikes after a brief break.
Furthermore, travelers flying to or from London Heathrow, the busiest airport in Britain, will encounter the closure of the Tube link for the next five days.
These are the main problem areas.
There are significant delays and cancellations on the Great Western Railway between London and South Wales due to flooding in the Swindon and Bristol Parkway area.
The railway line between Shipley and Ilkley in West Yorkshire is currently closed due to a landslip that occurred on Thursday.
LNER has reported disruptions to several Friday evening trains on the East Coast main line, which links London King’s Cross to Yorkshire, northeast England, and Scotland. The reasons for these issues include a lack of train staff, delays at depots, and a malfunction with the signalling system.
The beginning of the mid-semester break for numerous schools in the UK will align with extensive engineering projects.
The train station at London Liverpool Street, a major hub for the Greater Anglia railway system, will not have any trains running on the main lines connecting the capital to Southend, Ipswich, and Norwich. This closure will also affect the Elizabeth Line. The railway between London and Shenfield in Essex is currently shut down. Passengers are being provided with bus services to and from the Newbury Park London Underground station as an alternative.
This weekend, there will be disruptions to links along the East Coast main line due to construction at different points along the route. Grand Central has cancelled all trains running between Sunderland, York, and London. LNER is advising passengers traveling between Newcastle and the capital to take the East Midlands Railway via Derby or Sheffield.
The HS2 project, which is causing a lot of disagreement, will result in the closure of the railway line connecting Birmingham and Coleshill Parkway. This will have an impact on CrossCountry train services.
Additional routes experiencing interruptions as a result of planned maintenance are:
- Wigan-Bolton-Manchester
- Manchester-Sheffield
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On Sundays, trains run between Preston and Blackpool North only.
- Reading-Ascot/Gatwick airport
A labor stoppage led by RMT union employees at the Craigentinny depot near Edinburgh will result in numerous trains being unable to travel beyond Newcastle. This includes the longest train route in the UK, from Penzance to Aberdeen.
The disruption will persist for the entire week. Although other operators will continue to run on the impacted lines, services will likely be busier due to the disruption.
The Piccadilly Line at Heathrow on the London Underground will be closed starting at 7am on Saturday for five consecutive days due to upgrade work. This means that Heathrow will not be connected to the Tube network until the beginning of service on Thursday, February 15th.
Buses will be available to transport passengers directly from the airport to the Hammersmith Underground station in west London. Another convenient option for travelers is the Elizabeth Line, which services all four terminals at Heathrow and travels to central and east London. However, tickets for this line are more expensive than those for the Tube.
Due to unfavorable weather conditions, Caledonian MacBrayne has canceled several sailings on Friday in the Western Isles. This includes all connections to and from the Isle of Arran as well as the ferry between Oban and Barra.
The initial round-trip journey from Ullapool to Stornoway on Saturday has been canceled due to “powerful easterly winds reaching speeds of over 40mph.”
The boat ride from Mallaig to Skye may be interrupted or canceled unexpectedly due to a technical issue.
Those who manage to reach Continental Europe may encounter that their difficulties have only just started.
Trains in Spain and Italy will experience strikes on Monday, February 12.
German railway employees have engaged in widespread spontaneous strikes. On Wednesday, ground crew members employed by Lufthansa caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled when they went on strike.
Source: independent.co.uk
