Severe problems on some rail routes are causing major delays on what is expected to be the busiest day for Christmas travel.
Trains to Gatwick from Brighton and to Heathrow from London's Paddington are affected following two fires.
First Great Western train services to and from Paddington are also disrupted.
The getaway comes amid warnings of disruption following heavy rain across the country on Thursday, with many flood warnings in place.
Several people were rescued from vehicles and trains were cancelled around the country.
The Met Office expects more rain overnight on Friday and the Environment Agency has issued more than 240 flood alerts and more than 65 flood warnings.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has 13 flood alerts and almost 20 flood warnings in place.
Rail disruptionThe cable fire at Preston Park, Brighton has led to some trains from the south coast to Gatwick Airport being severely affected.
As a result, Gatwick Express trains are calling additionally at East Croydon and Clapham Junction and National Rail are warning that journey times may be extended by up to 90 minutes.
Replacement buses are in operation between Brighton and Haywards Heath.
A signalling problem is causing disruption near Hayes and Harlington. As a result of the problems, a number of Paddington services have been delayed and some cancelled, including those to Reading and Cardiff.
Trains to Bristol are running a reduced service and the disruption is likely to continue until 15:00 GMT.
There are currently no trains between Paddington and Heathrow Airport.
According to National Rail, a number of other train services have also been affected because of the weather:
- Trains are cancelled between Ellesmere Port and Hooton near Chester until further notice, with a replacement bus service running
- Trains between Crewe and Chester are also cancelled because of flooding
- Floods near Uttoxeter and Stoke-on-Trent have also caused rail disruptions
- There are delays between Derby and Nottingham and East Midlands Parkway because of flooding
- Services between Liskeard and Looe are also affected, with replacement buses in operation
Meanwhile, more than 200,000 people are expected to cross the channel on the Eurostar and ferries.
Works suspendedAround the country's airports, Heathrow is preparing for some 123,000 passengers to fly out on Friday and will handle a further 114,000 departures on Sunday and 88,000 on Christmas Eve.
From Friday until 3 January, a total of 700,000 will be leaving from Gatwick airport, 320,000 from Manchester, 300,000 from Stansted, 125,000 from Luton, 116,000 from Birmingham and 75,000 from Glasgow.
And between Saturday until the end of Christmas Eve, 52,000 will fly from Edinburgh airport and 56,000 from Bristol.
On the roads, the Highways Agency said many road works have been suspended, adding that more than 250 miles of road works will have been completed before Christmas.
Also, a further 57 miles of works will be suspended between Friday and 2 January, but works remain in place at 19 locations covering nearly 100 miles.
These include the M4 between junctions 10 and 11 at Reading in Berkshire, the M25 at junctions 5 and 6 near Godstone in Surrey and the M5 between junctions 19 and 21 near Bristol.
John Curtin, of the Environment Agency, said people should look out for the risk of flooding as they travel over the weekend.
"With a very busy travel weekend coming up, we would also ask that people check their route before travelling, and remember not to drive or walk through flood water," he said.
The RAC said it had about 9,000 call outs due to breakdowns, mainly weather related, in the 24-hour period from Thursday morning to Friday morning.
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