Heavy rain and strong winds threaten Christmas travel in the UK High winds and rain are threatening to disrupt the Christmas getaway in the UK with problems expected on the rail and road network. Southern England and Wales were the worst hit on Monday by gale-force winds. Forecasters were predicting the north of the country, especially Scotland, was likely to bear the brunt tomorrow. Train operators were warning passengers to check before they travelled and most had lifted restrictions on tickets to enable passengers to either travel early or to delay their departure until Tuesday. Network Rail was planning to impose speed restrictions on some lines from late afternoon on Monday. These were expected to be lifted early Tuesday morning. Robin Gisby, head of operations at Network Rail, said travellers should expect some delays. Our fundamental concern over the next 48 hours is to get everyone where they want to be for Christmas. "It won't be an easy task given the forecast conditions and disruption is likely - but I want to be very clear that our priority is running as many trains as we can safely, rather than worrying about hitting the timetable bang on," he said. A spokesman for Virgin Trains, the busiest long-distance operator of services between London and Scotland, said travel patterns over the past few days suggested a lot of people had made their journeys earlier. We think people have heeded the advice and gone earlier. Also given the way Christmas falls this year a lot of people made their journeys over the weekend - Friday was a very busy day for us. Drivers were urged to take extra care on the roads with the possibility of a lot of surface water on the carriageways. There are six flood warnings in place across the country and more than 100 less serious flood alerts. The high winds were expected to keep the QEII bridge at Dartford closed until 4am on Tuesday, causing long delays on the M25. Some ferry services were also cancelled but air travel appeared unaffected although some airports were advising passengers flying later on Monday to check with their airline.