The rail, road, flight and ferry travel chaos to expect this Christmas
Exclusive: Busiest days at many airports will be 19 and 28 December, as well as 2 and 4 January 2026
Kass
All the signs are that the festive getaway in, around and away from the UK will be the busiest of the decade, setting new records across transport pressure points.
What will it mean for your journey? The Independent has consulted dozens of organisations to curate this Christmas travel special.
Air
London Heathrow, Birmingham and Manchester airports are among those expecting their busiest Christmas to date. The Independent approached all the major airports for their busiest days.
While not all airports have replied, Fridays and Sundays are peaks across the board: Friday 19 December, Sunday 28 December, Friday 2 January and Sunday 4 January.
The top destinations from many airports will be:
Rail
The Independent has calculated that Saturday 20 and Monday 22 December will be the busiest days on the railways before Christmas. While individual lines are likely to vary – especially after Christmas when widespread Network Rail engineering work kicks in – passengers are more or less guaranteed an uncrowded trip on 24 and 31 December as well as New Year’s Day.
The optimum day to travel before Christmas in order to avoid crowding is Wednesday 24 December. Be warned, though, that services wind down early: the last London-Edinburgh train leaves at 4.30pm on Christmas Eve, while the final Newcastle–Birmingham departure is at 5.40pm.
No trains run in the UK on Christmas Day, and very few on Boxing Day.
After Christmas, there will be a surge on Saturday 27 December when intercity services are restored. Some key lines will close, putting pressure on other routes.
New Year’s Eve will be quiet, with New Year’s Day hosting fewer travellers still – though in Scotland almost no trains will run on 1 January.
Crowds will build back on Friday 2 January, with the final weekend of the festive season on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 January involving large numbers of travellers, many of them displaced to other lines by Network Rail engineering work.
The West Coast Main Line, which connects London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, north Wales and southern Scotland, will be closed on the key stretch from Milton Keynes to Rugby and will remain closed up to and including 5 January for the replacement of a junction at Hanslope in Buckinghamshire.
Further north, the West Coast Main Line between Preston and Carlisle will close from New Year’s Eve to 15 January inclusive, and a shuttle service will connect the two cities via the scenic Settle and Carlisle Railway.
One of the UK’s busiest stations, London Waterloo, will be closed from the end of services on Christmas Eve to Sunday 28 December inclusive.
No trains will run on the main line between Leeds and York until the start of services on 3 January.
Road
The RAC says: “The single busiest day for getaways over the period is Christmas Eve, when volumes of traffic could be at their highest since Covid.” Around 4.2 million getaway journeys are expected, but regular travel will be much lighter.
Christmas Day will be the optimum driving day across the UK.
Assessing figures from both the AA and the RAC, the worst delays are likely to be on:
Key locations for congestion are:
In addition, the M27 in Hampshire will close between junctions 9 and 11 from 8pm on 24 December until 4am on 4 January.
Bus and coach
Both Flixbus and National Express are laying on extra trips on key dates and routes, aiming especially to help passengers affected by rail engineering closures. The coach firms will be running hundreds of services on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, when few trains run.
As normal, almost all local bus services will close across the country on 25 December, apart from a few hospital services and the Isle of Wight, where the local company Southern Vectis says: “We are running a special Christmas Timetable on routes 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9”
Ferry
Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover, says: “The weekend before Christmas is expected to be particularly busy, with peak traffic anticipated between 6am and 1pm from Friday 19 to Sunday 21 December.
“To help ensure a smooth departure, we kindly ask all customers travelling with our ferry partners not to arrive any earlier than two hours before their scheduled sailing, just as you would if departing from a UK airport, and greatly appreciate everyone’s patience should there be any additional waiting time due to the high volumes of traffic.”
Unlike aviation, there is no penalty for missing a ferry at Dover due to congestion; you will simply be rebooked on the next available sailing free of charge.
Read more: Rail passenger offered £10k compensation for 18-minute train delay
