‘Do not TRAVEL’ Storm Pia sparks Christmas travel hell as 80mph winds delay flights, cancel trains and cause road traffic mayhem

‘Do not TRAVEL’ Storm Pia sparks Christmas travel hell as 80mph winds delay flights, cancel trains and cause road traffic mayhem

Travel expert Simon Calder talks to Good Afternoon Britain about the latest Christmas travel advice

GB News
George Bunn

By George Bunn


Published: 21/12/2023

- 08:28

Updated: 21/12/2023

- 13:36

A yellow weather warning has been issued for Scotland and northern England

Travellers who might be looking to travel home for Christmas are being hit with delays as Storm Pia hits parts of England.

There have been delays at European and domestic flights across the country, as well as warning for people travelling on trains in parts of rural Scotland and northern England.


Aerospace information website FlightView is reporting flights going to Hannover, Budapest, Brussels, Copenhagen and Munich are facing delays of at least an hour at Heathrow Airport. Flights out of Manchester are also being impacted.

TransPennine Express is currently advising passengers not to try to travel in or out of Edinburgh until after 3pm, with no services running between Edinburgh and northwest England until this afternoon.

‘Do not TRAVEL’ Storm Pia sparks Christmas travel hell as 80mph winds delay flights, cancel trains and cause road traffic mayhem

PA

Speaking at London Waterloo, travel expert Simon Calder told GB News: "No significant cancellations here, but in the Midlands and in particular the North of England and into Scotland, it's a very very different story.

"Scotrail which runs trains throughout that country said we're going to cut services on a number of Highland route so entire lines are out of service. Early morning travellers from Inverness who needed to get to the capital of Edinburgh were put on buses instead."

A British Airways spokesperson said: "Due to the high winds forecast as part of Storm Pia, we have made some adjustments to our schedule with as much notice as possible for our customers.

"We have apologised for the disruption to their travel plans and our teams are working hard to get their journeys back on track as quickly as possible."

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Heathrow

There could be some disruption in and out of Heathrow for festive travellers

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In Scotland, there have been delays with speed restrictions being put in place.

ScotRail posted on X: “Speed restrictions are in place today due to high winds caused by #StormPia For safety reasons, the decision has been taken to suspend our services on a number of routes. We have requested replacement transport, however availability is extremely low.”

Simon Calder added: "The main problem with railways in high winds is that stuff gets blown onto the tracks might be trees sometimes its trampolines.

"Between Crewe and Stoke on Trent all services had to stop because some kind of bag had been blown into the overhead wires."

People waiting for a train

There could be some delays for commuters heading home for Christmas

PA

Schools in Shetland have been closed today and more electricity network engineers are being brought in to deal with any power cuts.

Ferry services across the west coast of Scotland are expected to be disrupted.

A Met Office spokesperson said: "It is quite a wide wind warning area. Gusts are forecast quite widely to be 45mph to 55mph, possibly 65mph to 70mph to the east of high ground in Scotland.

"The strongest winds are likely to be found in the north and north-east of Scotland, including the Northern Isles, with 70mph to 80mph in the morning."

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