Coronavirus UK: Rail passengers in Tier 4 areas WILL get refunds after scrapping Xmas travel plans

Passengers in Tier 4 regions who have been forced to scrap their Christmas travel plans will get their train and coach bookings refunded, the Government announced today.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said customers will not be ‘left out of pocket’ for ‘doing the right thing’ by binning their family reunions as a ‘mutant’ strain of coronavirus spreads through the country. 

The Department for Transport (DfT) said cash refunds will be provided for cancelled rail and coach bookings in England for the previous Christmas travel window of December 23 to 27. 

Tickets will only be refunded if they were purchased between November 24 and before the travel window was amended on December 19 – meaning people who now pay for tickets and are stopped by police from leaving Tier 4 regions will not be compensated.

People who planned on flying back home are also not included in the Government’s refund scheme, after major airlines including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic revealed they will not refund cancelled trips for the end of the year. 

The DfT compensation plan also does not apply to people living in areas outside of Tier 4 in England, and for people living in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

It comes as millions of Christmas plans have been left in tatters after Boris Johnson effectively cancelled the winter holiday for nearly 18 million people in London and much of southern England. 

Passengers are advised to check their train operator’s website for how to claim. 

In a statement, Mr Shapps said: ‘It is imperative that we all follow the new measures and play our part in tackling this virus, protecting others and safeguarding our NHS.

‘If you booked a coach or rail journey between 23 and 27 December, you are entitled to a cash refund. This ensures no-one is left out of pocket for doing the right thing – staying home in Tier 4, and elsewhere staying local and only meeting your Christmas bubble on Christmas Day.’ 

Matt Hancock had said yesterday that the Government is looking into compensating people who have had to scrap their travel plans.  

He also warned that police would stop people from leaving London as extra officers have been deployed at train stations across the capital as Londoners try to flee the city to spend December 25 with loved ones.

Mr Shapps also said extra British Transport Police officers would be deployed at London’s railway stations to prevent ‘non-essential’ journeys. 

Masked police patrolled King’s Cross, St Pancras, Waterloo and Euston stations after scenes emerged at the weekend of big queues of Londoners taking trains north and west to escape the brutal new Tier 4.

In other coronavirus news: 

• Italy becomes the fifth country to spot mutated Covid virus after infected British traveller flew to Rome
• Calls for US authorities to join 32 nations blocking all visitors from UK amid outbreak of new Covid strain
• Tory MPs urge Government to ‘come clean’, recall Parliament and present evidence on mutant Covid strain
• Sainsbury’s warns of shortage in salad, broccoli and citrus fruits as panic-buyers queue for supermarkets
• More than £45 billion is wiped off FTSE 100 as markets fall 2.6% down this morning after Tier 4 introduction
• ‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson warns draconian measures may be needed for months – even up to Easter
• Streets and stations are eerily empty as Tier 4 leaves London showing little sign of life in run up to Christmas 

The Health Secretary hit out at the ‘totally irresponsible’ Londoners, while the Met Police warned the ‘most dangerous and flagrant breaches’ of Tier 4 regulations now in force will see fines given out.

In a round of TV interviews yesterday, Mr Hancock told people living in London and parts of the South and East of England living in the toughest tier regime to ‘unpack their bags’ and ‘reduce social contact’.

Under the new Tier 4 rules non-essential shops – as well as gyms, cinemas, casinos and hairdressers – have to stay shut and people are limited to meeting one other person from another household in an outdoor public space.

Those in Tier 4 were told they should not travel out of the region, while those outside were advised against visiting. In the rest of England, Christmas easing has been severely curtailed, with households allowed to gather for just one day – Christmas Day itself – rather than the five days previously planned.    

Wales has also announced it is going into a full lockdown and will follow suit by slashing bubbles to a single day. Nicola Sturgeon said at her own press conference that a ban on cross-border travel is being upgraded, and the law will be changed to cut bubbles to one day.  

Within 90 minutes of the PM’s bombshell announcement, Londoners were jumping into cars and taxis and even hiring vehicles to escape the city before Tier 4 came into force, the AA told the Mail on Sunday.

Its president Edmund King called the fleeing a ‘mini exodus’, adding: ‘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.’ 

Northerners warned against Londoners fleeing the capital after videos and photos appeared on social media which showed long queues in St Pancras Station. 

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.’  

An announcement warned passengers that it would not be possible to maintain social distancing on the train. 

Poppy Wood, 25, rushed to King’s Cross station to board a 7.30pm train before the 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 British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have revealed they will not be offering refunds to passengers who cancel trips for the end of the year following the new restrictions.  

The Virgin Atlantic Twitter account posted: ‘Refunds are only permitted for cancelled flights. If you have booked with us directly, you have the option to rebook for a new travel date up until 31 December 2022.

‘If you have booked with a third party, please contact them directly for your options.’

British Airways customer Lisa Hunter tweeted at the airline saying: ‘Just been moved into Tier 4 yet just been told on phone we cannot have a refund for flights booked for over xmas as ”the flight isn’t cancelled”.

‘It’s now illegal to travel out of Tier 4 areas so surely this cannot be the case? Heathrow is in Tier 4!’

BA replied: ‘Hi Lisa, flights are continuing to operate, as essential travel is still permitted. We’re afraid a full refund is only permitted if your flight is cancelled.’

A BA spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Customers who are unable to travel, or choose not to, can continue to change their flights or request a voucher for future use as part of our Book with Confidence policy, which has been available since the beginning of the pandemic.

As always, if a customer’s flight is cancelled they are entitled to a full refund or a voucher, and we always contact any customers whose flights may be affected to discuss their options.’

A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson told MailOnline: ”We understand the difficulties that Covid-19 and Tier 4 restrictions pose to some of our customers. 

‘Where a customer is unable to travel for any reason, we offer as much choice and flexibility as possible to help them change or amend their plans, with a name change and two date change fees waived for a new travel date up until 31 December 2022. 

‘Where a flight is cancelled, customers are of course entitled to a full cash refund.’ 

Rival airline EasyJet said that it would be offering refunds for those who were staying home.

A spokesperson said: ‘EasyJet plans to fly its current schedule over the coming days, however, following the UK Government’s announcement implementing Tier 4 restrictions which includes advice against travelling abroad, we understand some customers may now need to change their flights.

‘Impacted customers in Tier 4 areas have the option of transferring to an alternative flight free of charge, receiving a voucher or receiving a refund. This policy applies to any flights up until 30 December.

‘All other customers can make changes to their booking without incurring a change fee up to 14 days before departure online via Manage Bookings at easyJet.com.’ 

Which? consumer rights expert Adam French said: ‘These new restrictions will cause massive travel disruption and chaos, leaving many peoples’ festive plans in tatters.

‘If you’ve forked out on money for a train ticket and have to stay put you should be able to cancel the trip and get your money back.

‘Rail operators should be as accommodating as possible by allowing passengers the flexibility to use tickets or issuing them refunds if they can’t travel at another time.’ 

It comes as the scientist whose grim modelling spooked No10 into sending Britain into its first lockdown back in March warned that millions of families face living under draconian Tier Four restrictions until Easter. 

‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson, an Imperial College London epidemiologist who quit his role as a Government adviser after breaking rules to see his married lover, today claimed the harshest curbs could ‘possibly’ have to stay until the spring and admitted Britain was now in a race to vaccinate people.  

He warned Britain’s situation was ‘not looking optimistic right now’. It comes after Matt Hancock yesterday warned the Tier 4 restrictions could be extended nationwide, after the Health Secretary said the virus was now ‘out of control’ following the emergence of a fast-spreading new variant.  

It comes after it was revealed yesterday that Professor Ferguson played a major role in researching the variant that triggered the dramatic cancellation of Christmas. 

He was among those attending a meeting of Nervtag – the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group – to discuss the new mutant strain on Friday.

The Imperial expert said it was now a simple race to ‘get vaccines in people’s arms’ because the virus couldn’t be stopped any other way. 

And a colleague of his, infectious diseases expert Professor Wendy Barclay, said it was possible that if the virus mutates enough the immunity produced by vaccines might not work, although there is no proof that this is true of the new strain.

Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine is being rolled out rapidly but it is complicated because it must be kept in specialist freezers. 

Regulators now face pressure to approve England’s own vaccine made by Oxford University and AstraZeneca – a decision is expected within the next week. 

Another completed vaccine by US company Moderna, which trials showed was 94.5 per cent effective, has been pre-ordered by the UK but won’t be available until the spring.

Dozens of countries have all already banned travel from Britain over fears the mutated strain of coronavirus could spread, with France last night causing chaos over the last minute decision to shut the border. 

Mr Johnson will hold crisis talks with Ministers today as he chairs the Government’s Cobra committee amid warnings of ‘significant disruption’ around the Channel ports in Kent.

Race to reach home for Christmas: Huge queues at airports with 200 flights cancelled as Spain, Russia and India join list of 43 nations so far to slam door on UK- while Ireland lays on planes to jet citizens home 

There was chaos at airports across Britain today with more than 30,000 travellers stranded and hundreds of flights cancelled as more countries move to isolate the UK in a bid to contain a mutant strain of coronavirus. 

A growing number of countries are banning flights from the UK in a bid to stop the new Covid variant crossing their borders, sparking panic at terminals across the continent. 

The move has led to queues of people anxiously waiting for Covid tests at Heathrow Airport in west London where more than 80 departures have been grounded so far today – more than half of which are on British Airways – with that number continually rising as more countries ban incoming flights. 

At least 200 flights to Europe have been cancelled, with the routes affected including Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Geneva and Paris and long-haul flights to Russia and India. 

A spokesman for Heathrow told MailOnline that only passengers with a ticket to a destination that has not yet banned UK arrivals will be allowed in the airport. 

The spokesman added: ‘If you don’t have a ticket, or are travelling to a country with an active ban in place, do not come to the airport. We do not want the airport flooded or similar scenes that were seen at St Pancras on Saturday night.’

Heathrow is not testing people arriving in the UK from other countries – because the government has not yet made it a policy. 

The spokesman added: ‘We’ve been pushing for testing since April but still don’t have the go-ahead from the government. As soon as they’re ready to catch up, we are ready to go.’ 

But Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Minister confirmed the Department of Transport is looking at organising a limited number of flights today and tomorrow to accommodate those who need to return to Ireland for Christmas. 

The news will come as a shot in the arm to Irish residents left stranded in the UK, after the Irish Government issued a 48 hour travel ban on anyone entering the country from the UK. 

British passengers were left stranded in German airports last night and confined in a terminal until they could test negative for Covid-19 after Europe moved to seal off the UK because of its alarming new strain of the disease. 

Nurses in hazmat suits were screening the last arrivals from Britain on Sunday night as furious passengers were told they would have to sleep in the same room and wait until morning to leave the airport. 

The PM will chair a meeting of Cobra this morning after the travel bans spread beyond Europe with Canada, Chile and Argentina also cutting off the UK, although the United States has yet to do so. 

Germany is one of more than a dozen European countries to have closed down flights from the UK, while France has also closed the border to lorries, sparking fears for cross-Channel food supplies – although France said today that it would establish a protocol ‘in the next few hours’ for traffic to resume. 

In Hanover, airport officials set up campbeds for 63 people who arrived from Britain, with one passenger, Manuela Thomys, saying that ‘we are being held against our will’ and another deciding to turn back to the UK. 

‘Please help us leave!’ Thomys said in a video published by Bild, which showed a nine-month-old baby among the stranded passengers who included British and German nationals. 

One passenger called it a ‘scandal’ with others demanding to speak to a lawyer, while similar scenes unfolded in Berlin where 77 people were awaiting test results this morning after arriving from Britain last night.   

A German government source said restrictions on air travel from Britain could be adopted by the entire 27-member EU and that countries were also discussing a joint response over sea, road and rail links. 

‘Our aim is to prevent the new variant of the virus from entering the region,’ Hanover health official Andreas Kranz explained to German news wire DPA. 

Ireland has also stopped flights, causing chaos at Heathrow last night as hundreds of people scrambled onto the last flight to Dublin moments before the travel ban took effect.  

Boris Johnson sounded the alarm bell over the new strain of the virus on Saturday, when he put London and much of the South East back into lockdown and drastically scaled back Christmas plans for the rest of England.

The UK’s infection rate has surged by 51 per cent in the space of a week, and Sunday saw a new all-time record of 35,928 cases added to the tally, taking the total to 2.04million.   

Believed to be 70 per cent more transmissible, the new strain has been spreading rapidly in the south of England and has already been detected in Italy and the Netherlands. 

However, Britain’s chief medical adviser Chris Whitty and German health minister Jens Spahn have both said there is no sign that vaccines against Covid-19 will be rendered ineffective by the new strain.  

A spokeswoman for the WHO said that ‘across Europe, where transmission is intense and widespread, countries need to redouble their control and prevention approaches.’

France imposed an inbound travel ban from 11pm last night amid the spread of the mutant Covid-19 strain which plunged London and the South East into Tier Four.

The ban forced Dover to close to all freight vehicles leaving the UK for 48 hours, plunging the ports into chaos with 23 mile long queues and sparking panic buying across Britain amid fears of a shortage of fresh food and doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

Some 10,000 lorries a day travel through Dover, which accounts for 20 per cent of all goods brought and sold in UK.

The borders are set to reopen with the Port of Dover saying inbound lorries are now coming into the UK and the French government pledging to ‘resume movement’ as soon as possible.

However, the top French haulage union has stoked fears of a driver strike, with an official warning ‘no trucker wants to deliver’ to Britain amid the new strain.

And a Eurotunnel official added that he didn’t expect British lorries to arrive in France until Christmas Eve.

Countries including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Denmark, Finland and Ireland, as well as several non-European nations, have announced restrictions on UK travel following the outbreak of the new strain across South East England.

France indicated this morning it will open up to lorries from Britain again, but has confusingly demanded drivers register a negative test.

The testing plan has triggered more chaos with a French official saying a PCR test will be used and Macron saying drivers would be tested upon arrival.

A PCR test can take two to three days to come back, suggesting Britain would be required to test the drivers before they leave for France. But, if they are tested upon arrival, it suggests a lateral flow test will be used, which French border authorities could administer and get results for within 15 minutes.

France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Switzerland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Croatia and Turkey have all moved to stop flights because of the new strain. 

Outside Europe, Canada, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Kuwait, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile and Morocco have all imposed their own travel bans, although the US has not yet made such a move.    

Much of Europe is already in lockdown as high infection rates continue in the Northern Hemisphere winter, when respiratory diseases tend to flourish. 

Germany shut down shops and schools last week after a six-week ‘lockdown light’ failed to suppress the second wave, while the Netherlands is also under a five-week lockdown until January.   

Italy also announced a new regime of restrictions until January 6 that included limits on people leaving their homes more than once a day, closing non-essential shops and curbs on regional travel. 

Ireland, which has seen its own resurgence in cases, said flights from Britain would be banned for at least 48 hours starting from midnight last night – leading to chaos at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.  

Crowds of people had packed into the terminal for a reportedly overbooked British Airways flight, operated by Aer Lingus, which was scheduled to take off for Dublin just ahead of the ban. 

Passenger Rachael Scully, 23, said the Irish Government eventually gave the ‘green light’ for the flight which was set to leave at 10.30pm and due to land with 15 minutes to spare before the travel ban at midnight.

She wrote on Twitter: ‘Irish gov have given the green light and we’ve been processed for a BA flight. Due to land at 23:45. Woops of joy once the news got out. A Christmas miracle!’ 

A British Airways spokesman told MailOnline: ‘Our teams looked after customers while we urgently looked into alternative arrangements to get them on their way to Dublin as quickly as possible.’   

However some Irish people tweeted the stranded Heathrow passengers to urge them to stay put following the discovery of the mutant coronavirus strain. 

One said: ‘With all due respect guys, you are traveling from one of highest infected regions with a more infectious strain of Covid-19… You guys run the risk of bringing it to #Ireland. Please consider staying put. It’s hard I know.’

Another wrote: ‘Pls rethink your plans. You risk bringing a more contagious strain of Covid to Ireland. 

‘Elderly and vulnerable people are literally spending Xmas alone, inside afraid of seeing their families. Don’t be selfish, flights from the UK to here are now being stopped for good reason [sic].’ 

Ireland has imposed a 48-hour travel ban on non-essential flights from Britain from midnight which includes passengers on flights and ferries. 

However there will be no ban or travel restrictions for passengers travelling between the Republic and Northern Ireland.  

It comes amid growing fears for Britain’s supermarket supply chains after France included British lorries in its ban on travel, leading the Port of Dover to close for 48 hours.  

Food and Drink Federation CEO Ian Wright said: ‘Tonight’s suspension of accompanied freight traffic from the UK to France has the potential to cause serious disruption to UK Christmas fresh food supplies and exports of UK food and drink.

‘Continental truckers will not want to travel here if they have a real fear of getting marooned. ‘The Government must very urgently persuade the French government to exempt accompanied freight from its ban.’

One road haulage boss told the BBC that while lorries are still allowed from France to the UK, he feared that many European drivers would be unwilling to make the trip fearing they could not get home for Christmas. 

He told the broadcaster: ‘Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse – disaster upon disaster. I fear for supermarket supply chains. Many will be reluctant to make the crossing to UK if they can’t get back given there is already congestion.’   

The Eurotunnel Le Shuttle said that the UK-France border will close at 11pm on Sunday, and the last shuttle between the UK and France was at 9.24pm.

It came as as Eurostar cancelled its trains between London, Brussels in Belgium and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, starting from Monday. 

Eurostar stated on its website: ‘Due to announcements from the French and Belgian governments that borders with the UK will close at midnight on Sunday 20th December, we are unable to run any trains from London to Paris, Brussels, Lille or Amsterdam on either Monday 21st December or Tuesday 22nd December.

‘We are also unable to run trains from Amsterdam, Brussels and Lille to London on these dates. We can confirm that our trains will continue to operate from Paris to London.

‘The plan is to resume all our train services to and from the UK on Wednesday 23rd December.’  

The ban in Germany, which unlike France’s restrictions does not include cargo flights, is reportedly set to remain in place until at least December 31, according to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 

Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency, also called a special crisis meeting on Monday to co-ordinate the response to the virus news among the bloc’s 27 member states.

The Dutch government added that it is monitoring developments and is considering additional measures regarding other modes of transport.

According to the World Health Organisation, the strain has already been identified in Denmark and the Netherlands, while one case was found in Australia. 

US authorities are looking ‘very carefully’ into the virus variant spreading in the United Kingdom, top health officials said Sunday, while indicating that a ban on UK travel was not currently in the cards.

Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to the government’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine program, told CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ that US officials ‘don’t know yet’ if the variant is present in the country.

‘We are, of course… looking very carefully into this,’ including at the National Institutes of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,’ he said.

At the moment, he said, no strain of the virus appears to be resistant to the vaccines available.

‘This particular variant in the UK, I think, is very unlikely to have escaped the vaccine immunity,’ Slaoui said. 

The PM effectively cancelled Christmas for around 18 million people in southern England, including London, on Saturday night by moving swathes of the country into a brutal new Tier 4 regime. 

Under the new Tier 4 rules non-essential shops – as well as gyms, cinemas, casinos and hairdressers – have to stay shut and people are limited to meeting one other person from another household in an outdoor public space.   

In the rest of England, Christmas easing has been severely curtailed, with households allowed to gather for just one day – Christmas Day itself – rather than the five days previously planned.             

The UK has alerted the World Health Organisation that the new variant identified this week appears to be accelerating the spread of Covid-19, saying it accounted for some 60 per cent of the capital’s cases.

Viruses mutate regularly, and scientists have found thousands different of mutations among samples of the virus causing Covid-19. 

But many of these changes have no effect on how easily the virus spreads or how severe symptoms are.    

link