Bank Holiday Monday travel latest: Meltdown for train and air passengers as rail and flight schedules unravel

Passengers on Great Western train services face even worse disruption than expected

The final day of the bank holiday weekend looks set to bring even more travel chaos than Saturday and Sunday.

Passengers hoping to travel on Great Western Railway (GWR) services between London and the west of England and South Wales face worse disruption than expected.

Network Rail engineering repairs, in connection with the Crossrail project, has closed the main line between London Paddington and Reading. Trains to and from Cornwall, Devon, Bristol and South Wales had been expected to travel on the Chiltern line via Oxford.

But a shortage of train crew trained to work on the alternative line means all Cardiff and Swansea services have been curtailed and will start and end in Reading.

Only one long-distance train per hour will run through to Paddington; the usual weekday frequency is six per hour.

GWR told passengers: “These services are anticipated to be exceptionally busy. Customers are strongly advised to only travel on these services if they already hold a reservation.”

Travellers between London and South Wales are being told to travel via Reading and Basingstoke.

The train operator said it had been told about the scale of bank holiday engineering work later than usual.

“As a result, this has affected Great Western Railway’s ability to prepare, plan and run many of the train services initially advertised to run over the weekend,” said a spokesperson.

“Insufficient train crew are available to meet the demands of the timetable originally planned to run. It has also impacted the quality of information available on some journey planners used by customers.”

Passengers hoping to travel between London and the south coast by rail face another day of delays.

The very heavily used main line between London and Brighton is closed for the entire bank holiday weekend just south of Gatwick. Therefore a bus replacement service was set up, but during Sunday morning crowds built up quickly at the airport for people heading south, and at the next station down the line, Three Bridges, for those going north.

On Sunday some travellers had to wait two hours for bus replacement services.

To reduce overcrowding, some trains between London and the airport were cancelled – jeopardising airline passengers’ journeys.

Miguel R tweeted: “Sunday 6 May too many people travelling and trains suspended due to station overcrowding? Shameful.”

Southern Railway is telling passengers on Monday: “As the good weather continues into the bank holiday, services are expected to be extremely busy, as high volumes of customers travel to the coast.

“Journey times are likely to be extended. You may wish to travel earlier or later than planned.

“We will continue to monitor services and crowd levels throughout the day, and endeavour to run as many services as possible.”

Scotland’s busiest station, Glasgow Central, has returned to normal after being almost at a standstill for most of Sunday due to a power failure triggered by overhead wire damage.

Thousands of airline passengers faced difficult journeys as the latest two-day strike on Air France began. It will continue until midnight on Tuesday.

On Friday, the airline’s boss resigned after failing to persuade pilots, cabin crew and ground staff to agree to a settlement offering 7 per cent more pay over the next four years.

Shares in the Air France Group, which includes the Dutch airline KLM, fell by one-seventh on Monday morning.

On Sunday, Bruno Le Maire, France’s economy minister, warned: “The survival of Air France is in the balance.

“If Air France does not make the necessary efforts to be competitive, Air France will disappear.” He made clear there would be no government bailout.

The French airline hopes to operate almost all of its long-haul services, but four out of seven departures between Heathrow and Paris have been cancelled, as well as links from Edinburgh and Newcastle to the French capital.

Belfast International Airport has apologised to passengers who missed their flights on Saturday due to extremely long security queues. The airport is offering to compensate affected travellers.

Italian air traffic controllers are planning a nationwide strike between 10am and 6pm, local time, on Tuesday 8 May.

While intercontinental flights and some services to and from the Italian islands are unaffected, many short-haul departures will be delayed or cancelled. Passengers on Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways face disruption.

BA is allowing passengers booked to or from Italy on Tuesday to travel on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

The airline said: “Unfortunately, if the threatened strikes go ahead, we will be forced to cancel some flights. We will be using larger aircraft, where possible, to help affected customers and are doing all we can to reduce the levels of disruption.

“Public transport to and from airports could also be affected by the national strike, so please allow extra time for your travel plans before and after your flights.”