The great Christmas getaway! Four million hitting road or rail today

Updated
The great Christmas getaway! Four million hitting road or rail today
The great Christmas getaway! Four million hitting road or rail today

Christmas holidaymakers wait at Paddington: AP


Today is reportedly the busiest day for travel over the Christmas holidays with four million people getting away by road or rail.

Heathrow will also see its busiest day of the season with 123,000 people set to fly off for a Christmas break.

But the day's travel has already been hit by major problems, as a fire at Acton station in west London has led to many services being cancelled at Paddington - one of the main carriers to Heathrow.

In fact, no trains were running this morning (21 December) from Paddington to Heathrow, according to the Daily Telegraph, putting extra pressure on the already-packed Tube system.

Signalling failure has also been causing problems. A Heathrow airport spokeswoman told MailOnline: "The severe disruption to Heathrow Express services has been caused by problems with Network Rail track and signalling failure. We've put extra staff on duty to help keep passengers informed and are sorry for the disruption caused to their journeys."

The paper reports that a fire near Brighton is also affecting rail services to Gatwick Airport.

On the road, experts are warning people to leave as soon as possible to try and avoid traffic hell. In total, up to 15 people will hit the roads in the UK over the Christmas season, but today is said to be the busiest. Heavy downpours of rain are also expected to cause travel chaos on 22 December.

Flash flooding has been causing problems in parts of the south west.

Darron Burness, the AA's Head of Special Operations, told the Daily Telegraph: "The run-up to Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for traffic so any bad weather can have a big impact on the roads.

"Unfortunately, following this morning, some drivers will be asking Father Christmas for a new car after driving down flooded roads. It's just not worth the risk, so stay out of flood water, as it can hide all manner of hazards and you seriously risk wrecking your engine or worse."

Still fancy that Christmas getaway?!

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