Dozens of trips to and from London have been canceled as Network Rail performs 530 engineering projects over the weekend of bank holidays. There will be no West Coast center line on or off Euston Station until the end of Monday, which is likely to upset football fans heading to the FA Cup semi-final between Manchester City and Liverpool at Wembley. In Scotland and the north of England, TransPennine Express apologized for a “catastrophic weekend” that ensued as its leaders staged a long-running wage dispute. AA President Edmund King said the chaos on the rails would take more people to the streets as millions enjoy the first weekend of Easter in two years without restrictions for Covid. As the getaway began on Good Friday, with temperatures hovering around 22 C (71.6 F) in London making it the hottest day of the year so far, deadlocks prevailed in some parts of the country – though not as bad as he was initially afraid. An estimated 4.62 million trips will be made across the UK, with another 22.48 million during the holiday weekend at what could be the busiest in years, according to the RAC. There was heavy traffic jams on the M20 in Dover as P&O Dover-Calais services remained suspended, with some travelers complaining that they lost their ferries after hours of waiting. The images showed huge rows of cars spanning miles. The cars pass trucks lined up on the M20 motorway in Kent. Photo: Daniel Leal / AFP / Getty Images Ashley Griffiths-Beamon, 33, and her husband Damian Griffiths-Beamon, 36, were married on Thursday and were due to travel to Belgium for their honeymoon. They waited 180 minutes in Dover and lost their ship. “I’m upset and disappointed,” Ashley said. “We had great plans for today that have now been ruined.” It came as the temperature rose to 22 degrees Celsius in St James’s Park in central London on Good Friday afternoon – a climate similar to Athens and Madrid – and was expected to rise further. The previous high so far this year was 20.8C recorded in March. North Yorkshire experienced relatively calm weather on Friday afternoon, with temperatures in Scarborough as hot as in Gibraltar and Istanbul. Train passengers have been advised to plan in advance and look for alternative routes amid widespread unrest until Monday night. TransPennine Express told customers to avoid their services for the whole weekend. Rail connections to Heathrow are also disrupted, as part of the Piccadilly Pipeline is closed and the Gatwick and Stansted Express lines are also closed at the weekend. More than 9,000 flights were scheduled to depart from UK airports between Good Friday and Easter Monday, according to aviation data company Cirium. This corresponds to 78% of the total for the same period before the pandemic in 2019. Good Friday was expected to be the busiest day, when about 2,430 flights were to depart. Some travelers complained of long queues and canceled flights Thursday night as many tried to begin the escape, with staff shortages and Covid-related absences being blamed for the disruption.
