Christmas travel LIVE: Traffic chaos feared as millions take to roads

Britons are enjoying a “remarkably mild” Christmas Eve as shoppers dash to buy last-minute gifts and travellers head home for the festive season.

Although conditions on Tuesday are expected to be “grey and gloomy”, it will be the warmest day of the week, with highs of up to 15C in north east Wales, according to the Met Office.

This is slightly lower than the warmest Christmas Eve on record – when a high of 15.6C was measured at Gordon Castle in Banff and in Craibstone, Aberdeenshire, in 1931.

The Midlands, north east England and north east Scotland may see some “brighter spells”, but it will be largely cloudy for most of the country, the weather service added.

In an online forecast, Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said: “It’s just going to stay cloudy, a lot of low cloud covering the hills of the west, misty around the coast, drizzle here and there, particularly for north west England, and more especially western Scotland – where the rain will be persistent through the rest of the day with a strengthening south westerly wind.

“But with all of this cloud coming from the Atlantic, it is going to be a remarkably mild Christmas Eve.”

If you’re not a hitchhiker, then there are more domestic flights than ever to and from London Heathrow on British Airways for 25 December.

Manchester: four return trips with fares at £184 northbound, £115 southbound.

Newcastle: three return trips, as low as £44 northbound, £125 southbound.

Edinburgh: three return trips, from £141 northbound, £181 southbound.

Glasgow: three return trips, from £143 northbound, £145 southbound.

Some trains will run in the UK on Christmas Day – but only in the London area, and mostly as brief continuations of Christmas Eve services. They all involve London Liverpool Street, the busiest station in the country, and include:

12.01am: London Liverpool Street via Paddington and Slough to Maidenhead, arriving 12.58am.

12.07am: London Paddington via Liverpool Street to Shenfield in Essex, arriving at 1.03am.

12.07am: Bishops Stortford via Harlow Town to London Liverpool Street, arriving 12.50am.

12.14am: London Paddington via Liverpool Street to Whitechapel, arriving at 12.27am.

12.22am: London Paddington via Liverpool Street to Shenfield, arriving at 1.22am.

12.01am: Goodmayes in Essex via London Liverpool Street to Paddington, arriving at 12.35am.

On the main links to northern France from Dover, the last departure to Dunkirk on DFDS is 2pm, and to Calais on P&O Ferries at 3.05pm.

On Boxing Day, the first ferry out from Dover to Calais is scheduled for 9.10am and to Dunkirk at 10am, both on DFDS. Coming back to the UK, routes restart at 10am (from Dunkirk) and 11.20am (from Calais) on Boxing Day.

Eurotunnel’s LeShuttle from Folkestone to Calais, however, keeps going 365 days a year.

Isle of Wight ferries across the Solent will wind down around 6 or 7pm on Christmas Eve, with no sailings on 25 December.

The UK’s only hovercraft link, from Southsea in Hampshire to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, closes from 6.30pm on Christmas Eve to 6.30am on Friday 27 December.

Space for vehicles and passengers on ferries across the Irish Sea is scarcer than in any previous festive season. The main link between Great Britain and the island of Ireland, from Holyhead to Dublin, is closed due to damage caused by Storm Darragh.

Many families were planning to circumvent the closure by using the ferry from Cairnryan to either Larne or Belfast in Northern Ireland.

But on Sunday 22 December almost all of those links were cancelled due to severe weather conditions. To try and alleviate the build-up of freight and passenger traffic at ports, Stena Line has added an extra sailing between Thursday and Cairnryan – in both directions – on 24 December.

On Caledonian MacBrayne routes in Scotland the links from Mallaig to Armadale in southern Skye and the Small Isles have been cancelled on Christmas Eve because of forecast adverse weather. Several ferry links from Oban have been moved earlier to try to avoid the worst of the weather. And from Wemyss Bay to the Isle of Bute, fog may put paid to 24 December sailings.

Millions of journeys are set to be made across the UK on Christmas Eve in what is expected to be the busiest day of the festive season, leading to fears of traffic chaos.

Of the around 29.3 million Christmas journeys that the RAC estimated would take place between Wednesday and 24 December, 3.76 million are predicted to be made today, the highest number of journeys in a day over the festive week.

The RAC urges drivers who must travel on 24 December to do so outside of the hours of 10am to 4pm, amid concerns there will be a build-up of congestion on the roads as people head home for Christmas.

Travel correspondent Simon Calder answers your questions on axed flights, Avanti strikes and station soft spots:

National Express, Megabus and FlixBus will operate many hundreds of coach journeys between them on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, including to and from airports.

National Express has added departures between central London and Luton and Stansted airports, as well as extra coaches from Bristol, Norwich, Manchester and Livepool to London. Additional services will also connect Liverpool with Manchester (city and airport) and Leeds. More coaches will run from South Wales and Bristol to Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

Advance booking is strongly recommended, especially for airport links. National Express is offering a 10 per cent discount for online bookings in December using the promo code DEC10.

Some local bus services will run on 25 December. In Merseyside, 10 routes are operating – mainly serving hospitals – and all buses are free for the day.

Edinburgh residents can use a reasonably comprehensive network, including regular buses between the centre of the Scottish capital and the airports.

In Manchester, the only Christmas Day service will be bus 43 between Manchester airport and Piccadilly, once an hour.

Gatwick airport will have regular buses from Crawley, while Slough is connected with Heathrow airport all day.

On the Isle of Wight, Southern Vectis will run a near-normal schedule on Christmas Day.

Elsewhere, some other local operators have a skeleton service, particularly linking hospitals.

Scotland’s central belt will have many trains running, centred on Edinburgh and Glasgow. The biggest 26 December operation for decades will see links between the two cities and extending north and northeast to Perth, Dundee and Arbroath, as well as a busy network in Strathclyde.

In England, trains will be extremely rare. Those that will run include:

• London Underground and Docklands Light Railway on a reduced Sunday service; the Elizabeth Line will not operate.
• London Overground between Highbury & Islington and West Croydon and between Clapham Junction and Stratford.
• London Victoria-Gatwick Airport-Brighton: hourly services from 8.30am to 8.30pm. Some other south London suburban trains will run to and from Victoria.
• Tottenham Hale-Stansted Airport: half-hourly services from 6.45am to 11.15pm. Tottenham Hale is on the Victoria Line of the London Underground, which will be running.
• Merseyrail (local network around Liverpool): 9am-6pm, not all lines/stations. “Additional services will be available between Liverpool and Aintree to support those attending the Boxing Day races,” the train operator says.

No trains will run in Wales or Northern Ireland.

Eurostar will run a full service from London St Pancras International to Paris (15 trains each way) and Brussels (eight trains each way).

Drivers have been warned which major routes to avoid this Christmas season as experts predict a record number of festive trips will be made.

Around 29.3 million Christmas journeys will take place between Wednesday and 24 December, the RAC has estimated, with nearly half taking place on the pre-Christmas weekend alone.

Surveying over 2,000 drivers, the motoring group has urged festive commuters when to avoid major routes over the coming days.

My colleague Albert Toth has more in this report: