A fault with the power-carrying third rail outside Clapham Junction in south London was fixed in time for Friday morning’s rush-hour. The previous day it had halted services on the main London-Brighton line, delaying some trains by five hours and wrecking the travel plans of thousands of airline passengers hoping to fly from Gatwick.
By Friday afternoon, the problems had switched to north of the capital. On one of the busiest days of the year, the commuter line between London Euston and Watford Junction was closed throughout the evening rush-hour because of an electrical fault.
In the Midlands, a broken-down train at Leamington Spa delayed CrossCountry and Chiltern services by up to 90 minutes. Another failed train in Cumbria held up Virgin and First TransPennine operations by an hour.
At Exeter St David’s, the rail hub for South-West England, signalling problems caused delays, while vandalism at Thornaby halted services in the North-East between Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.
Planned engineering works for the bank-holiday weekend mean longer, more complicated journeys for passengers on the lines east from London Liverpool Street to Southend and Colchester. Many services to and from London Waterloo are cancelled on Sunday and Monday; it is Britain’s busiest railway station by passenger numbers.
On the roads, the sheer volume of traffic caused long delays to South-West England on the A303 and M5, and in the Midlands on the M6. The M40 was closed northbound for a time in Buckinghamshire. There was also heavy congestion on motorways west of London: the M25 between the M3 and M40, and the M4 between the capital and Swindon.
Many families flying abroad enjoyed the first day of freedom from Air Passenger Duty in 20 years; the tax on departures was axed for under-12s flying in economy class. But some travellers experienced delays, cancellations or diversions.
Pilots working for TAP Portugal chose International Labour Day to begin a 10-day strike in protest against government plans to privatise the airline. Dozens of flights were cancelled, including departures from Manchester and Gatwick to Lisbon.
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Adverse weather at Nice led to some flights being diverted to Marseille, and others cancelled – including services to Heathrow and Gatwick. A Jet2 flight from the French city to Manchester arrived four hours late.
Spain’s Balearics and Canary Islands, as well as destinations in Portugal, also experienced delayed flights. A Monarch flight from Alicante to Birmingham operated four hours late.
At Scotland’s busiest airport, Edinburgh, Friday evening services on easyJet and Aer Lingus were delayed by up to two hours. The longest delay, though, was an eight-hour wait at Gatwick for holidaymakers heading for Sal in the Cape Verde islands. Their Hi Fly plane was expected to land in the early hours of Saturday morning.
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