Christmas travel misery starts

Some train services are already fully booked

Train travellers are being warned that many services in the run-up to Christmas are fully booked and journeys to some destinations may prove difficult.

After increasingly urgent pleas for passengers to book early, two of the biggest inter-city operators have seen a flurry of seat reservations as thousands prepare to travel on Saturday.

GNER and Virgin have experienced massive demand for services from London to Scotland, with all other trains heavily booked.

With roads congested and trains busy, budget airlines and domestic carriers are also experiencing heavy demand.

They too are advising passengers to book as soon as possible.

Saturday trains

GNER: Services from London to Scotland fully booked - book on 08457 225 225 for other services

Virgin: London to Glasgow fully booked - other bookings on 08457 222 333

First Great Western: Most trains out of London to West Country and South Wales are fully booked although 70-80 seats are held back - bookings on 0845 700 0125

Northern Spirit: No services heavily booked

Midland Mainline: All services 75% full - booking advised on 08457 125 678

On Saturday, all GNER services from London Kings Cross to Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh are fully booked, as are all Virgin services from London Euston to Glasgow.

A Virgin spokeswoman said other Saturday services were up to 80% booked but she said there would be a limited number of unreserved seats and standing room.

"We always have an unreservable coach. We will allow some standing. There will be some barrier control, we will direct people to the best services and I don't think anybody is going to be stranded."

The spokeswoman concededed that Virgin had no idea how many people would turn up without reservations and expect to travel.

"We have been advising people for weeks to book but we will have to wait and see."

GNER spokesman Nick Mallender said his company was handling 20,000 reservations daily.

He insisted people would be turned away from platforms only in a "worst case scenario".

He said: "There will be some people standing - we are going to sensibly manage it on the day and get people home."

Saturday is proving to be the most popular day for rail travel, with Friday, Wednesday of next week and 2 January also proving busy.

Christmas travel

Rail: Book now - GNER, Virgin and First Great Western services out of London are already heavily booked

Air: All airports busy and requiring advance bookings - Easyjet, Go and other budget carriers particularly busy

Sea: Most ferry companies still have space on sailings over Christmas period

Road: Major routes busy from Thursday afternoon although many sets of roadworks lifted

Some companies operating services out of London will use barrier controls to handle passengers hoping to travel on crowded routes without reservations.

But some operators not involved in services to or from London look set to have an easier Christmas period.

Northern Spirit, which runs the Trans-pennine Express service from Liverpool and Manchester through Yorkshire to Newcastle and Sunderland, says there is no need to book.

But First Great Western, which runs services to South Wales and the West Country, said most services out of London are already fully booked in the Christmas run-up, although up to 80 seats on every train are kept unreserved.

BBC Travel News spokeswoman Helen Blaby said roads would start to get busier from Thursday afternoon.

She said: "They will start getting a bit mad from Thursday afternoon onwards into Friday.

"People will be having a lie-in and heading away in the afternoon - all major roads are likely to be busy, although most major roadworks are lifted for Christmas."

Railtrack figures released on Thursday showed speed restrictions have been lifted at more than 500 sites where rails were repaired or replaced.