Thousands of UK rail passengers face Christmas getaway chaos

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Thousands of rail passengers trying to get away for Christmas faced travel chaos after high winds disrupted services on one of the UK’s main intercity lines, while services through the Channel Tunnel were cancelled for much of Thursday after workers in France went on strike at short notice.

Air travel was also affected after British Airways cancelled more than 20 short-haul flights because of air traffic control restrictions caused by Storm Pia, with much of the country covered by a Met Office yellow weather warning.

Rail services on the west coast mainline out of London Euston suffered major disruption for several hours on Thursday after high winds brought down overhead electric wires near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire.

Avanti West Coast was forced to cancel services from the capital to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Scotland for several hours until power was restored mid-afternoon. The operator warned of continued delays and possible cancellations as services are restored. 

Eurostar was forced to cancel all services from midday for the rest of the day after a strike at short notice by French workers at Getlink, which operates the Channel Tunnel, leaving thousands of people travelling between the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands stranded.

The LeShuttle car and lorry train service was also suspended, leading to a knock-on effect on the roads as police were forced to close the coastbound carriageway of the M20.

“Today’s call for strike action by representatives of Eurotunnel’s French site staff unions has resulted in the complete interruption of service and the closure of our terminals in France and the UK,” Getlink said.

Storm Pia hit northern parts of the UK the hardest, bringing down trees and leading to disruption on the roads and to other rail services. Ferry services to islands off the west coast of Scotland also stopped running.

Trains serving Manchester were severely affected from early in the day, with rail operator TransPennine Express — which provides inter-city services across the north — warning passengers not to travel on some routes.

A gust of 115mph was recorded on Cairngorm Summit in the Scottish Highlands as the Met Office warned of winds up to 80mph (128kph) in northern Scotland and 55mph (88kph) in northern England and Northern Ireland.

Residents across the country were put on notice of power cuts, with outages affecting thousands of people in the north east of England.

Northern Powergrid said 40,000 households had suffered disruption to power supplies in the north-east, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire, although many were reconnected by the afternoon. 

At least one aircraft had to abort its landing at Manchester airport because of the high winds, while a series of others were diverted to other airports, including London Stansted.

In Bolton, Greater Manchester, high winds overnight caused the frontage of an M&S store to shatter inwards, while in Derbyshire a man was taken to hospital after his car was hit by a tree. Parts of northern England also experienced flooding.