Like last train out of Saigon!
Mayhem at St Pancras and confusion at Heathrow as thousands race to escape tier 4 restrictions in time for Christmas
FAMILIES were l ast night fleeing areas of England that have been plunged into the tightest restrictions in what one l eading expert described as a ‘mini exodus’.
Edmund King, president of the AA, said that within 90 minutes of Boris Johnson’s bombshell announcement, there were reports of people jumping into cars and taxis and even hiring vehicles to escape London before draconian new rules were imposed at midnight.
‘There are certainly elements of an exodus of some people from tier 4,’ he told The Mail on Sunday.
‘I have heard of people actually hiring cars to get out of London to get to Liverpool because a lot of the trains are either restricted or booked.
‘We have even heard of taxi drivers taking people longer distances – people calling minicab offices and saying, “I need to get to Nottingham”.
‘ It is almost like a wall is coming down around London and the South East and some people are scrambling to get away to save their Christmas before midnight.’ Last night footage
‘What a disaster. I’m angry at how it’s been handled’
emerged of a large crowd queuing on a packed platform at London’s St Pancras Station to board the last train to Leeds before restrictions were introduced at midnight.
An announcement warned passengers that it would not be possible to maintain social distancing on the train.
Branding it the ‘last train out of Saigon’ – a reference to the evacuation of US personnel during the Vietnam War – journalist Harriet Clugston wrote: ‘Every person on this train including myself has made what is probably a very silly and irresponsible decision to travel albeit within the law.
‘But that’s what people were always going to do to be together at Christmas.’
Travel into and out of the new tier 4 zone, which includes London and large swathes of the South East of England, has been banned in a desperate bid to contain a mutant strain of the coronavirus.
International travel for the 16.4 million people who live in tier 4 is also prohibited unless it is for work purposes, while Mr Johnson urged families in the rest of the country to ‘ carefully consider’ whether they needed to go abroad.
The Prime Minister’s announcement shattered the plans of millions of families who were set to embark on the traditional Christmas getaway in the coming days to see friends and family.
Last year around 17 million people hit Britain’s roads between December 22 and 28, but Mr King believes that number will now plummet to around two million.
Poppy Wood, 25, rushed to King’s Cross station last night to board a 7.30pm train before the tier 4 restrictions were imposed. She said: ‘What a disaster. I’m so angry at the Government – the whole thing has been shockingly handled.’ Miss Wood, who was travelling to her parents’ home in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, with her brother and her boyfriend, said the station was ‘surprisingly socially distanced but very sombre’. ‘Everyone is just looking up at the screens quite longingly,’ she added.
‘It’s not panicked at all – it’s very calm. I think the threat has become very real and people are actually quite nervous, which hasn’t been the case for a while in London.
‘I was meant to be doing all my Christmas shopping today but with everything going on I hadn’t got anything done. I have just ransacked every shop in the station to get both my boyfriend and my brother a Christmas present.’
Social media sites were flooded with people voicing their anger at having their Christmas travel arrangements torpedoed.
‘I’m beyond furious,’ said Londoner Michael Wood, 25, who has had to cancel Christmas with his parents in Norfolk.
‘ The Government should have provided more forward guidance,
rather than cancelling Christmas with four days to go.
‘It’s easy to say we’ll get through it but not when you’re on your own in a shoebox apartment.’
Rose Wilford, who also lives on her own in London, has been isolating for the last seven days and was planning on travelling back to her parents in Worcestershire for Christmas.
‘Now that the tier 4 has come into place I’m not able to travel and will have to spend Christmas on my own,’ she said.
‘This year has been particularly hard on my mental health and to find out that I have to spend Christmas on my own is devastating.’
Meanwhile, thousands of families were yesterday forced to scrap plans to spend Christmas abroad, while passengers already at
Heathrow faced the dilemma of whether they should get on board flights. The airport told passengers it was waiting for government guidance regarding flights and advised them to contact their airline.
Meanwhile, the restrictions raise the prospect of checkpoints being used to prevent families entering or leaving the new tier 4 zone.
Police forces across Britain were last night waiting for the Government to publish regulations on how they are to enforce the new rules.
Martin Hewitt, National Police Chiefs’ Council chairman, said: ‘We urge everyone to follow the rules in their area, and as throughout the pandemic, we are confident that the majority of people will continue to do their best to adapt and do the right thing.’
Meanwhile, there were questions last night about how the new rules would be enforced on train services travelling between tier 4 areas and the rest of the country.
Yesterday’s announcement was another devastating blow for airlines, airports and holiday firms whose businesses have been ravaged by the pandemic.
There are also fears that countries could close their borders to British travellers in a desperate bid to prevent the mutant strain from spreading around the world.
Aviation expert Alex Macheras said that restrictions imposed by one country could precipitate a domino effect, resulting in the UK becoming cut off from the world in the same way that the area around Wuhan in China was at the beginning of the pandemic.
‘ If one country was to take a stance in acknowledging that there was a new strain in the UK and to take a stance in trying to keep that strain out you would see the UK become something like Wuhan in terms of the rest of the world’s perceptions in keeping the UK contained,’ he added.
Last night a spokesman for Heathrow Airport said: ‘While we support steps to contain this new strain, the decision to restrict international travel again will further damage the national economy and jeopardise jobs.’
‘I’ll now be on my own in a shoebox apartment’