THOUSANDS of people are expected to take to the roads and railways today as the festive exodus begins following the start of the school holidays.
The main London to Glasgow rail line is braced for its busiest day of the year as the route's major operator, Virgin Trains, prepares to carry more than 5,000 passengers home as the festive exodus begins.
The London to Scotland operator is gearing up for its busiest ever Christmas in Scotland with more than 60,000 passengers expected to cross the border over the next fortnight via the West Coast Main Line, and today will be its busiest day of the entire year as people pack onto the trains to journey home for Christmas.
Virgin, who run the West Coast Main Line franchise, carried more than 5,000 passengers to and from Glasgow Central yesterday with even more booked to travel today.
The boost in Christmas travel comes a year after Virgin Trains added 3,000 seats per day to its Anglo-Scottish route to bolster its ability to cope with demand at peak times of the year.
However, passengers have also been warned that services to and from London next weekend are being diverted due to engineering works on December 27 and 28. This means that customers travelling between London and Scotland will have to go via the East Coast, which has also reported a surge in passenger numbers.
Gary Iddon, general manager for Virgin's Anglo-Scottish services, said staffing at stations had been increased to assist customers with their luggage and help them find a seat during the busy period.
"We've put more frontline people on the ground to deal with the expected surge. It's going to be a challenge, but customers are our top priority and we're doing everything we can to make sure their Christmas journeys go without a hitch," he said.
"There are no services on Christmas and Boxing Day and on the following weekend of 27/28 December engineering work at Watford will mean that passengers in Scotland will have to travel via the East Coast Main Line to get to Scotland.
"We've seen a very steep reduction in bookings over that weekend, which is reassuring as it shows the message around that disruption is getting out there."
Meanwhile, 72,000 people have already reserved seats to travel on East Coast services between Monday and Christmas Eve, while on Saturday, December 27 alone the London-Edinburgh services are booked to carry almost 30,000 passengers - double the number of people who use the trains on an average Saturday.
Scotland's new Transport Minister, Derek Mackay, urged people travelling by road over the next two weeks to keep an eye on Traffic Scotland's 24-hour news feeds for updates.
Information on road conditions is regularly fed out via its Twitter account @trafficscotland, and the public can log on to the Traffic Scotland website to view the individual camera or weather stations for information on conditions in their area.
Mr Mackay said: "Thousands more journeys are taken on our roads at this time of year so we would urge them to leave plenty of time and check the weather forecast and conditions before they leave.
"Traffic Scotland's information comes straight from first-hand sources, such as our partners in the police and operating companies as well as from technology feeds across the trunk roads."
Scotland's two busiest airports - Edinburgh and Glasgow - are set to handle hundreds of thousands of festive travellers as people jet off to sunnier climes or return home for Christmas.
Glasgow airport is expecting its busiest festive fortnight in six years with more than 220,000 people passing through their check-in desks and arrivals lounges from today until January 2.
Dubai, New York and the Canary Islands are among the most popular destinations for festive holidaymakers flying out of Glasgow, while Spanish resorts including Majorca and Alicante are favoured by Edinburgh airport's travellers.
Bosses at Edinburgh, Scotland's busiest airport, said they expect to break through 10 million passengers for the year during the Christmas and New Year weeks with 130,000 people due to pass through its doors next week alone.
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