NEWS DESK

Chaos is the only word that can describe travel in southern England and the capital today, with aviation, rail and train travel severely affected by industrial action, company failure and fire in the case of Eurotunnel.

Despite the economic downturn many thousand of travelers flying from Gatwick and Stansted were planning to go on holiday only to discover the UK's third largest tour operator XL has gone bust.

Those trying to go via train to the continent or using their car have been prevented because of the chemical inside the freight tunnels of the Eurotunnel yesterday.  Travel services are not expected to resume to normal levels for months.  The last fire in the tunnels in 1996 took the company six months to resume normal services with commentators in the rail industry saying this current is fire is more serious than the 1996 fire.

London buses are on strike today with the Unite union calling on bus drivers affiliated to the union to demonstrate over the disparity in wage levels across the bus network.  The buses on strike today are:

Bus routes affected: 9(heritage service only), 10, 18, 23, 28, 31, 79, 83, 92, 95, 105, 187, 207, 223, 224, 226, 228, 245, 282, 295, 328, 331, 414, 427, 487, 607, A10, E1, E3, E5, E7, E9, E10, PR2, U1, U2, U3, U4, U5, U10.

The London economy today will take a battering with the amount disruption on the main arterial routes of the capital.  Updates on the disruption will be posted as soon as developments occur.