Rail passengers reveal horror journeys amid Easter getaway
‘It was like the last train out of Saigon’: Rail passengers reveal horror journeys which saw customers ‘faint’ as Britons crammed into packed stations while engineering works closed Euston and holidaymakers face delays at Dover
- Euston Station will close over the four day Easter bank holiday weekend
- Huge queues at the Port of Dover have spelled the start of Easter getaway chaos
- ARE YOU CAUGHT IN THE CHAOS? Email: [email protected]
Rail passengers today revealed the horror of their journeys across the country as the Easter holiday rush and the closure of Euston station resulted in hours of travel chaos.
Travellers reported seeing people ‘faint’ as they crammed onto overcrowded trains at other central London hubs in a scramble to visit loved ones or head to beauty spots to take advantage of the sunny weather.
One described the scenes as ‘like the last train out of Saigon’ – a reference to the frantic evacuation of Americans at the end of the Vietnam War.
Meanwhile, there was also gridlock on the roads for those looking to use their cars to get away, including 90-minute queues at the Port of Dover.
Euston Station is shut throughout the four-day weekend for improvement works at Watford Junction, meaning thousands of passengers have instead flocked to the likes of Marylebone, Paddington and St Pancras for their cross-country trips.
Huge crowds at St Pancras today for the Easter getaway, with Euston station also closed
Traffic at the Port of Dover in Kent as the getaway continues for the Easter weekend
Ruaridh Pritchard, a writer from the capital, was delayed for three hours as a result of crowds and service reductions on his way to Stockport, Greater Manchester, for an Easter weekend with friends.
Full list of engineering works across UK train network
Euston Station
No trains are running to or from London Euston between Good Friday and Easter Monday, with all services starting and finishing at Milton Keynes.
Those affected by the closures will need to travel by rail replacement buses
Victoria Station
Victoria Station will be half closed and passengers will see some disruption.
There will be no trains between Victoria and East Croydon due to engineering work at Streatham.
Many Southern services will instead be diverted to London Bridge, and the Gatwick Express will not run.
Replacement buses will run between Clapham Junction and East Croydon via West Croydon.
Elizabeth Line
There will be no services between Paddington and Abbey Wood between Good Friday and Easter Sunday due to necessary upgrades of the signalling software.
South Western Rail
South Western Railway has warned passengers engineering work will affect services to and from Waterloo this weekend.
Rail replacement buses will operate between Woking, Winchester and Andover; Reading and Andover; in the Staines area; and between Clapham Junction, Earlsfield and Wimbledon.
Earlsfield station will be closed, and Vauxhall will have fewer services, on Sunday and Monday.
North West
Track upgrades taking place from Saturday to Tuesday will mean the West Coast main line is closed between Lancaster and Carlisle. Avanti West Coast services will terminate at Lancaster to/from the south. Replacement bus services will be in operation between Lancaster and Carlisle.
South East
Vital embankment improvements and track renewals in Kent between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings from Friday 7 to Saturday 15 April. As a result, between these dates, buses will replace Southeastern train services between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings.
Scotland
Significant work to improve reliability and resilience at Carstairs will mean there is no route through Carstairs Junction to and from Edinburgh Waverley or Glasgow Central via the West Coast main line for the whole of the bank holiday weekend.
‘St Pancras was mayhem – limited crowd control,’ the 33-year-old said.
‘Staff are doing the best they could under that circumstances. Lots of people arguing and pushing – it was like the last train out of Saigon.
‘(It has) kind of put a dampener on the weekend, I’ve lost half a day of Easter.’
Sophie Earish, a student from Wembley Park, said her normal 20-minute tube journey to St Pancras took an hour due to closures on the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines.
When she arrived at St Pancras station, on her way to visit her partner in Loughborough, the 26-year-old said she then had to queue for an hour and a half for a train north.
‘I didn’t realise Euston was closed this weekend causing this mess,’ she said.
‘The queue to get to trains on the platforms were chaotic… why do they think it’s acceptable to do engineering works over the Easter weekend? It’s ridiculous, it seems to be the same every year.’
Many other furious passengers took to social media to ask ‘whose bright idea it was’ to close the station on one of the busiest weekends of the year, claiming people are fainting on ‘severely overcrowded’ services where others are having to sit on the floor.
In further rail chaos, Elizabeth Line services are also disrupted on all four days of the bank holiday weekend, with no service between Paddington and Abbey Wood.
Those affected by the closures will need to travel by rail replacement buses, contributing to the ‘nightmare’ conditions on the roads on a weekend where up to 17 million leisure trips by car will take place, according to the RAC.
Sharing a picture of a packed St Pancras station, Conservative MP Robin Millar said: ‘These are the scenes at St Pancras for passengers trying to get north.’
Another passenger currently on a service to Birmingham said: ‘Whose bright idea was it to close Euston on one of the busiest weekends of the year?
‘[I’m] on severely overcrowded train from Marylebone to Birmingham, people are fainting and having to sit on floors. Still costs a fortune to travel in these foul conditions.’
Another passenger at St Pancras raged: ‘Total chaos. Trains full to capacity all due to engineering work at Euston. Great Easter decision!’
One commuter said: ‘Who made the decision to close both Euston and Paddington for works on the second most busy weekend of the year? I want their head on a stick.’
Sharing photos of people being forced to sit on the floor of a train, one man raged: ‘This has been probably the worst thing so have seen ever.
‘Although it is the Easter holidays and people are going to see their families, I have been on trains in other holidays and it has never been this bad.
‘This happened probably because of the lack of train services. They should have been prepared.’
The M5 in Somerset is currently experiencing long delays southbound between J16 and J21 near Weston-Super-Mare due to an increased volume of traffic due to the Easter getaway.
Average journey times are being delayed by at least 90 minutes.
Marylebone: Passengers crammed into the London station today while Euston was closed
Passengers are reportedly ‘fainting’ on packed trains today as Britons travel across the country for Easter
Conservative MP Robin Millar shared a picture of a packed St Pancras platform
Extraordinary demand has led to passengers queueing to get into Marylebone station
Passengers crammed together at St Pancras station today ahead of the Easter getaway
Huge queues have formed southbound on the M5 near Bristol as holidaymakers and day trippers head to the south wes
Queues at Stansted Airport train station as passengers arrive on Good Friday morning
There were huge queues at Stansted Airport train station earlier this morning
DOVER: Traffic at the Port of Dover in Kent today during the getaway for the Easter weekend
BRISTOL: Passengers at Bristol Airport face some lengthy queues at the check-in desks today
HEATHROW: Passengers at Heathrow’s Terminal 2 today as millions prepare to fly away for Easter
Passengers were forced to sit on the floor during services last night due to overcrowded trains
The four day weekend is set to be the busiest for transport that the country has seen since 2019 with an estimated two million UK holidaymakers heading overseas to destinations like Spain, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, Greece and southern Turkey according to travel trade organisation Abta.
Huge queues of holidaymakers are waiting on ‘extremely busy roads’ close to the Port of Dover amid warnings of 90-minute delays.
READ MORE: Will my train be cancelled over Easter? When is West Coast main line closed over Easter weekend? Are London Victoria and London Euston stations open?
Cars could be seen snaking from the Kent port to the nearby town after 11am on Good Friday, with lorries thought to be stretching back further.
P&O Ferries and operator DFDS were reporting delays of between 60 and 90 minutes to the port’s entrance while Irish Ferries advised people to allow up to three hours before their travel time.
Drivers have been advised to bring supplies in case they are left waiting for hours, with queues expected to lengthen in the early afternoon.
Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘First of all, the weather’s clear, the ferries are sailing well, and all that sort of stuff, this weekend was always scheduled to be about 30% lighter than last weekend, today being the busier day.
‘What we did is we worked with our ferry operators to try and spread the demand across the three days rather than all on this day.
‘I know that that’s challenging for the coach industry because they have itineraries that they want to maintain, but they’ve worked with the ferry operators to be able to do that, and that’s been successful.
‘We’ve also installed a new facility to expand our processing at the borders for coaches, that’s operational, I just saw one goes through in just shy of 10 minutes.
‘It’s going to be a busy day, we’re running probably about an hour to an hour and a half to get through border controls at the moment, and we will peak through probably early afternoon, and then it will start to slow down after that.’
He said holidaymakers should bring drinks, food and entertainment for children if they are arriving at the port.
P&O Ferries said on Twitter: ‘The roads in and around the Port Of Dover area are extremely busy. Please allow extra time for your journey to the port.’
Meanwhile, DFDS said freight ferry queues are ‘slow moving’.
It comes after chaotic scenes at the port last weekend when thousands of people were delayed, reportedly by up to 14 hours.
Nichola Mallon, of Logistics UK, talking about lorry drivers using the port, told Sky News: ‘If they’re waiting considerable periods of time, that becomes a driver welfare issue and so that’s why we’re working very closely with the Kent resilience forum, and to make sure that we can minimise delays.
‘In fact, I have a number of meetings today as we closely monitor the situation and make sure that contingency plans are in place if needed, and people are working very hard on that.
‘Our message to our members would be to check with your ferry operator to make sure that you’re aware of the latest guidance, make sure that you’ve completed all your paperwork before you head there and have supplies there, just in case, and make sure that you leave enough time to accommodate any delays.’
At one point on Thursday, there were queues of ‘approximately 90 minutes’ for passport checks by French officials at the port as the Easter rush kicked off amid ‘high volumes of traffic’, DFDS said.
Delays at Dover have been blamed on French border officials carrying out extra checks and stamping UK passports following Brexit.
Pictured: Passenger Chaos at Marlybone Station as Britons make cross-country trips for Easter
Traffic at the Port of Dover in Kent during the getaway for the Easter weekend
READ MORE: Families looking for a quick break over the four-day weekend face paying up to SEVEN times more in rail fares than taking the car or coach for their mini-staycation
Port officials said they held an ‘urgent review’ with ferry operators and the French authorities in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last weekend’s delays.
A general strike in France in a row over pension reforms is also causing disruption.
About 400,000 people joined a protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms in Paris on Thursday, the French CGT union reportedly said.
Figures from aviation analytics company Cirium show 10,218 flights are scheduled to leave UK airports between Good Friday and Easter Monday.
P&O Ferries warned customers today: ‘There are currently large queues at the entrance to the Port of Dover of at least 60 minutes.
‘Please allow additional time on your journey if possible and rest assured should you miss your crossing you will be on the next.’
The company added: ‘The large queues are currently for our car passengers however there is a queues also forming now of coaches yes. This may not take as long.’
After one passenger said she missed her ferry after queing for almost two hours, P&O said: ‘We’re really sorry for the excessive delays you have experienced at border control points.
‘We share your frustrations over these delays. [We] can only assure you that our teams will get you away as soon as possible.’
It added: ‘Unfortunately it is out of our control how quickly traffic is processed.’
A passenger tries to squeeze onto a full train carriage at London Paddington during the great Easter getaway
Passengers were left standing in the aisles on long journeys today with seats all packed out
A number of passengers squeezed their way onto busy trains to get away for the long weekend
Crowds of passengers were waiting for trains at London Paddington station on Good Friday
Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover, said it is taking drivers around an hour and a half to get through border controls.
AT A GLANCE: Problems with planes, trains and cars
Planes
It’s set to be a busy couple of days at Britain’s airports with figures from aviation analytics company Cirium show 10,218 flights are scheduled to leave between Good Friday and Easter Monday.
But it won’t be plain sailing for Brits due to strikes both home and abroad.
Both British Airways and EasyJet have warned customers they have had to cut services due to French air control strikes.
EasyJet services between Toulouse and Bristol as well as Gatwick and Bordeaux were cancelled yesterday while British Airways said they had to ‘make a small number of adjustments to [their] schedule’ and had cut some services to Nice, Barcelona, Toulouse and Paris.
Matters were further complicated after a Paris Airports spokesman confirmed that protesters had stormed Terminal 1 is blocked road access.’
At Heathrow’s Terminal 5, security staff are continuing to strike which has led to British Airways cancelling some services over the weekend.
Trains
The closure of Euston Station sparked chaos on the rails today and more disruption is expected across the weekend.
As well as the central London hub shutting, there are reduced services at Victoria and on the Elizabeth Line.
There are also no services between Lancaster and Carlisle or Tunbridge Wells and Hastings, while there is disruption too north of the border.
Cars
After thousands of drivers were delayed at Dover last weekend, reportedly by up to 14 hours, there have already been long queues forming at the port.
The RAC is predicting that up to 17 million leisure trips by car will take place between Good Friday and Easter Monday and that road speeds could be reduced to 12mph.
Major roads in south-west England and some in the Home Counties were warned they were likely to experience the worst congestion on Good Friday.
These include the M25, M5 and A303, as well as the M20 and A20 to Dover.
‘It’s going to be a busy day, we’re running probably about an hour to an hour and a half to get through border controls at the moment, and we will peak through probably early afternoon, and then it will start to slow down after that.’
Lorry drivers using the Port of Dover over Easter have been advised to bring supplies in case of long queues.
Nichola Mallon, of Logistics UK, told Sky News: ‘If they’re waiting considerable periods of time, that becomes a driver welfare issue and so that’s why we’re working very closely with the Kent resilience forum and to make sure that we can minimise delays.
‘In fact, I have a number of meetings today as we closely monitor the situation and make sure that contingency plans are in place if needed, and people are working very hard on that.
‘Our message to our members would be to check with your ferry operator to make sure that you’re aware of the latest guidance, make sure that you’ve completed all your paperwork before you head there and have supplies there, just in case, and make sure that you leave enough time to accommodate any delays.’
Candice Mason runs Masons coaches, which work with the Port of Dover.
She blamed the travel mayhem on the EU’s heightened post-Brexit checks and said staffing was also an issue.
She told BBC R4 Today: ‘I’m not expecting this to go away in fact the number of coaches travelling through the courts hasn’t changed year on year.
‘We need to see [extra measures from the Port of Dover] all through the summer season.
‘There are some people that don’t have any other method of travel so coaches are their only choice.’
Candice is afraid the chaos will push more travellers to alternative modes of transport next year.
She added: ‘We had teachers last week saying ”I think we’ll just fly next year”.
‘I’ve had drivers saying, ”Gosh don’t send me to Europe, I don’t want to spend my days like that”.’
It comes following a ‘Black Thursday’ yesterday which saw flights grounded and cross-Channel trains cancelled amid a nationwide strike and protests in France against president Emmanuel Macron raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a parliamentary vote.
Irish Ferries told passengers that check-ins is likely to take three hours. DFDS Ferries, which operates from Dover to Calais and Dunkirk, said there were queues of up to ’30 minutes’ at border checks, but travellers should allow two hours to complete check-in.
British Airways has cancelled dozens of flights every day until Sunday as it struggles with a 1,400-person walkout by the Unite union, who work security for BA in Heathrow’s Terminal 5.
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