Easter getaway chaos

Workers at Heathrow and mainline rail closures across the country are threatening to cause travel chaos over Easter.

Hundreds of baggage handlers at the airport are voting in a strike ballot in a row over pay and working conditions.

The result will be declared on Thursday and union leaders confidently expect a result in favour of action, giving enough time for the first walk-out on Good Friday.

At the same time large sections of the rail network face closure over all or part of the four-day Easter holiday weekend of 25, 26, 27 and 28 March.

Sections of both the West Coast and East Coast main lines, connecting London with the Midlands, North and Scotland, will be closed on the Saturday and Sunday.

Scores of other lines around London, the South-East and South-West will also be closed to allow engineering work to take place. Diversions will be in place and buses will replace trains in many areas but long delays can be expected.

Easter at Heathrow is one of the busiest periods of the year and last year the airport handled 900,000 travellers during the holiday. The dispute involves Aviance, the country's largest baggage handler and part of the Go-Ahead transport group, and is over "two-tier" contracts which came into force when the firm took on 70 staff made redundant last year after the collapse of rival baggage handler Swissport.

Mike Cooper, managing director of Aviance South, called for the union to return to the negotiating table, adding: "We introduced new contracts purely for new employees from 22 November last year." He admitted they had "different" terms and the contracts were not as good as those for existing staff.

He added: "This dispute can be settled by negotiation." Talks between the two sides could take place tomorrow.

John Armitt, chief executive of Network Rail, which is responsible for the tracks and signals and is carrying out the work, said Easter had been deliberately chosen for the line shutdowns because fewer passengers travel then than on a normal weekday.

These are some of the major changes to rail services over all or part of the four-day Easter holiday: West Coast Main Line: trains from Euston will be subject to cancellations and diversions on Saturday and Sunday. Diversions will take place between Preston and Carlisle. Buses replace some trains. East Coast Main Line: services between King's Cross, York and the north-east of England and Scotland will be affected by engineering work between York and Newcastle on Saturday and Sunday. Buses replace trains south of York and north of Newcastle. London and South-East: buses replace trains between Southend and Shoeburyness on Saturday and Sunday; Sittingbourne to Sheerness services replaced by buses.