After vacationers and train commuters were slammed with a fresh dose of travel hell ahead of the worst strikes in a generation, Britain’s summer of discontent appeared to begin earlier than expected.
Millions of Britons’ vacation plans are still in jeopardy as tourists prepare for a week of disruption caused by the militant RMT’s industrial action, which is predicted to cripple the country.
However, many passengers flying out of Heathrow were enraged on Friday when their bags were reportedly left behind after they left the country due to a technical ‘glitch’ that resulted in a massive luggage pile-up.
Hundreds of luggage and personal belongings were seen piling up at Terminal 2 of the UK’s main airport, as holidaymakers faced yet another round of travel woes after weeks of disruption.
Passengers were apparently advised that their bags might not arrive for two days.
Customers were apologised to, and Heathrow said that the sea of bags had accumulated as a result of personnel dealing with a ‘ongoing issue with the baggage system.’
Train passengers were also stranded in the scorching heat after lines out of Euston Station were closed on Friday due to a reported fire on the line.
Passengers travelling into London stated they were stuck on trains to Euston with “no water or air conditioning.” At one point, Euston was forced to close, with police officers manning the station’s doors and gates to prevent people from entering.
‘We have two problems in this region that are causing issues,’ Euston Station tweeted just after 8 p.m. While our engineers work on correcting the signaling problem, a test train is examining the overhead lines. This follows the extinguishment of a fire near the rail line.’
Operator Avanti West Coast also confirmed all travel on the Milton Keynes Central to Euston line was suspended after damage to overhead electric wires. Three out of the four main lines have since reopened, but delays continued well into the evening.
The chaos comes just days before the country will be hit by the biggest rail strikes in three dcades, and after Britain’s beleaguered airports hit headlines in recent weeks with flights cancelled last minute and huge queues.
Half of Britain’s rail services will shut down during the walkouts on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday next week, while those that do operate a limited service will run between 7.30am and 6.30pm only.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union has demanded 11% pay rises for workers and a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies in response to a national drive to save more than £2bn across Britain’s railway network.
Holiday plans for millions of Britons continue to hang in the balance as holidaymakers brace for a week of chaos, with travel on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday expected to be badly affected due to the knock-on effects of the industrial action by 40,000 members of the RMT union.
It comes as passengers passing through Britain’s airports have experienced last-minute flight cancellations, baggage stuck hundreds of miles abroad, and snaking lines as the new normal.
Some visitors have even been forced to sleep on the floor of terminals due to long delays, according to shocking images from around the country.
As people rushed back to work and school after half-term, they crossed borders rather than waiting for later flights.
Many people claimed they had to pay hundreds of pounds for new flights or other kinds of transportation, such as Eurostar trains.
Among them were teachers needing to get back to the classroom and A-level pupils who risk missing exams and even losing university places.
After pictures of the Terminal 2 nightmare emerged online, a Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘Earlier today there was a technical issue with the Terminal 2 baggage system which has now been resolved.
‘Passengers are now able to check-in as normal, but a number of passengers who departed from Terminal 2 earlier today may have travelled without their luggage.
‘We are working closely with airlines to reunite passengers with their luggage as soon as possible.
‘We’re sorry there has been disruption to passenger journeys.’
The aviation industry is suffering from staff shortages after letting thousands of people go during the coronavirus pandemic.
And Gatwick Express cancelled all trains for three days next week and Eurostar axed dozens of services, as last-minute crunch talks continued with Network Rail. 
There are 1.3 million openings around the country in various sectors, according to Business Minister Paul Scully, but there are also ‘those who have recalibrated what they want to do while on furlough.’
He also stated that he intended to let “those who can work longer – who want to work longer” to do so.
It comes as Heathrow’s chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, has warned that restoring capacity to pre-pandemic levels will take 12 to 18 months.
Mr Holland-Kaye pointed out that skilled jobs have been lost, that recruiting and training people takes time, and that global staffing concerns have an influence on UK airports.
‘For two years, most politicians and the public have been screaming for borders to be closed, and it has had a disastrous effect,’ he told Sky News.
‘It’s extremely easy to put the brakes on the industry, resulting in massive employment losses, but it’s much harder to ramp it back up again,’ he added.
Mr Holland-Kaye believes that enough personnel will be available to deal with the summer vacation because Heathrow’s “biggest team of individuals is security officers, and we will have as many security officers this summer as we did before the epidemic.”
Ground handling companies, which provide services like luggage checks and plane cleaning, have seen significant employment losses.
Gatwick announced Monday that it will reduce the number of daily flights to 825 in July and 850 in August, down from 900 in prior years during the same time period.
This means that 4,000 flights will be canceled until September, affecting 800,000 people, but executives expect that it will enable passengers ‘enjoy a more reliable and better grade of service.’
‘Given the high frequencies of our services to and from Gatwick, we expect to be able to reaccommodate the majority of customers should their flight be affected by the cap,’ said easyJet, which axed 40 flights per day in June.
A spokesman for TUI, who were so short staffed that police had to tell customers waiting at the gate in Manchester that their half term holiday was cancelled, declared: TUI Airways flights have been operating well from Gatwick and we therefore plan on operating all flights as planned this summer’.
Meanwhile, militant union bosses were accused of self-sabotage and warned travel chaos will make it harder for frontline NHS staff, including doctors and nurses, to get to work, potentially putting patients at risk.
A senior NHS leader warned yesterday that the industrial action will ‘probably end up killing people’ because it will exacerbate delays for ambulances.
In a letter to Labour health spokesman Wes Streeting, Health Secretary Sajid Javid wrote: ‘The disruption these strikes will cause will make it more difficult for doctors, nurses, carers, and other healthcare staff to get into work.
‘They will also make it harder for patients to come in to see them for much-needed treatments. Some of these patients will have had to book time off work to attend their appointments.’
Transport Secretary Mr Shapps said workers were carrying out an ‘act of self-harm’ by walking out, claimed union bosses were driving them to do so ‘under false pretences’ and said the strikes were ‘the last thing’ they should do.
Speaking at a train depot in London, he warned striking was pointless because of the new era of working with home in which the railways are ‘in a battle’ with Zoom, telling workers: ‘Don’t risk striking yourselves out of a job’.
But Transport Salaried Staffs Association union boss Manuel Cortes replied: ‘Bully boy tactics will not wash with our union when the truth is our members are fighting for their jobs, pay and for a safe railway fit for the future.’
And the Unite union warned that strikes could now spread to London’s bus network amid its concerns that a consultation on proposals to cut a number of routes in the capital could lead to hundreds of job losses.