Drivers confronted chaos on the roads yesterday as placing railway staff compelled hundreds to ditch public transport.
Site visitors crawled at 15mph in elements of the nation because the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Union shut down the rail community.
Lots of of prepare routes weren’t obtainable – and additional disruption is anticipated this morning with many companies setting off later than normal.
The AA had predicted heavy site visitors with 15.2million set to journey yesterday after spending Christmas with household and mates.
Site visitors constructed up on the M25 in Surrey, close to Cobham, as folks headed to the Boxing Day Gross sales
Nevertheless, delays have been worse than anticipated with critical site visitors jams on the M6 and M1 in addition to the A303.
Boxing Day gross sales and Premier League matches additionally added to the distress as hundreds extra travelled up and down the nation.
In whole, hundreds of passengers have been affected by yesterday’s rail shutdown – which additionally noticed Eurostar companies cancelled. It meant Nationwide Categorical noticed file numbers of passengers guide on to its coaches yesterday.
Community Rail is now advising passengers to ‘solely journey by prepare’ earlier than January 9 ‘if completely mandatory’ as additional strikes scheduled by the RMT and prepare drivers’ union ASLEF will deliver extra distress.
However final night time Paul Charles of journey consultancy The PC Company warned unions they have been doing themselves ‘no favours’ in the event that they went forward with additional strikes.
He mentioned: ‘The general public are getting fed up with the railway staff over steady placing and it’s clear that assist for the railway staff is ebbing away. They haven’t performed themselves any favours by calling for strikes within the new 12 months when many will likely be needing to get into work.’
A sequence of accidents on main roads additionally brought on additional issues on Boxing Day.
Two collisions happened on the M25 – with the second leaving drivers caught in 13 miles of queues, in keeping with site visitors information firm Inrix.
And a crash involving 12 automobiles on the M6 noticed the motorway shut in Wigan within the afternoon.
The AA mentioned: ‘The motorways have been wanting fairly ugly round about noon. It has been worse than we anticipated with critical delays.’
Nationwide Highways yesterday insisted its community of main roads have been ‘performing effectively’ apart from the areas the place accidents had taken place.
Andrew Haines, Community Rail’s chief govt, mentioned: ‘The RMT is inflicting pointless distress to its personal members, to the railway and to the nation’s financial system.
‘I’m so sorry that our passengers are having to bear the brunt of the RMT’s pointless strike when a good provide is on the desk and when solely a 3rd of the workforce have rejected it.’
The Every day Mail was unable to achieve the RMT final night time for a response. However its basic secretary Mick Lynch beforehand mentioned: ‘Till the Authorities provides the rail trade a mandate to return to a negotiated settlement on job safety, pay and situations of labor, our marketing campaign will proceed.
