Rail travel chaos envelopes Britain as nearly 2000 sections of track are discovered to be unsafe following two recent rail crashes. No line is now immune from long delays, unannounced cancellations, diversions or journey termination at unscheduled stations. One rail company has even issued an unprecedented bulletin advising customers NOT to use their service. This chaos is unlikely to be unravelled before the New Year and I suspect that the effects of dislocation will be felt well into 2001. If you are intending to visit Britain in the next three months you would be well advised to delete rail travel from your schedule if that is possible.
Many passengers flying into UK airports other than London Heathrow include some rail travel in their transit plans. A reduced train schedule from Gatwick airport into London is now in operation and subject to delays. Cancellations can occur without warning. Arriving recently at the traveller-friendly Gatwick Airport after an overnight transatlantic flight with the admirable Virgin Atlantic, I was marooned for half a day on Gatwick's rail station. All train services had been cancelled while the police dealt with an Irish republican bomb scare at Victoria Station, the London terminal.
The threatened blockade of UK fuel refineries by fuel tax protesters adds a further disruptive factor to be considered in Autumn travel plans. The protesters came to within a hairsbreadth of bringing Britain to a halt in September and could do so again if their demands are not met by their 14 November deadline. While the government will not be caught on the hop as they were in September, (they are understood to be preparing to bring in the army to smash the picket lines), Britain is likely to see an acute shortage of gas at the pumps if the picketers return. At the time of writing all the indications are that a defiant government is digging in its heels over fuel tax reduction and is preparing to take on the protesters in a nationwide confrontation.
I shall update this report regularly while the UK travel crisis lasts. Watch this space.
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