A union boss says it is “disingenuous” for the Transport Secretary to speak out about chaotic scenes at Britain’s airports as issues with staffing “have been on the radar for a long time”.

Grant Shapps said on Wednesday the aviation industry must “do their bit” to resolve problems that have led to the disruption.

Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “This unfortunately was a foreseeable problem, it was one we warned about at the point at which the mass redundancies were made.

“We asked the Government to look at the aviation industry as a special case and they refused. And now, quite frankly, for Grant Shapps to come out as he has in the last 24 hours is a little bit disingenuous, considering these problems have been on the radar for a long time.”

The aviation industry is suffering from staff shortages after letting thousands of people go during the coronavirus pandemic.

Eurostar passengers are reporting toilets out of order on a Eurostar service they waited nearly two-and-a-half hours for.

“2hrs 28m estimated delay and 4 toilets out of order. Parents changing babies on the floor,” complained Simon Edmonds on Twitter.

“Train should never have been dispatched like this,” he added.

Eurostar has been experiencing severe delays to its entire network since 9.30am today, when a fatality on the tracks in Northern France first caused disruption to services,

Gatwick Airport’s bars and restaurants have seen a surge of customers as air passengers arrive early for flights or find themselves delayed.

“Check-in and security were pretty stress free - busy but well organised,” reports Chris Shearer, who is at the airport waiting for a delayed easyJet flight to Verona.

“It’s the bars and restaurants that are a joke.”

Mr Shearer sent a video of the queue from Gatwick’s North Terminal Wetherspoons pub, which is currently stretching across the departure lounge.

“People are using the currency exchange as a makeshift standing table... people are drinking in and amongst the communal seating areas,” he says.

Chris and his friends, meanwhile, have decided to skip the queues and improvise with minature wine bottles on the departure lounge steps.

Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, has made another round of flight cancellations for the second day of the Platinum Jubilee holiday.

The Independent has identified some of the grounded flights to and from easyJet’s biggest base, London Gatwick.

The only service of the day to Munich has been cancelled, along with departures to Budapest and Barcelona.

After large numbers of flights were cancelled at very late notice last week, easyJet has cut around 24 departures a day to and from Gatwick.

Affected passengers must be flown to their intended destination on the original day of travel if any seats are available – including on rival airlines.

In addition hotel accommodation must be provded if an overnight stay is required, with commensurate meals.

Your full rights here:

The final day of the long Platinum Jubilee weekend, on 5 June, is a Sunday – the day of the week which would normally see no service on the new Elizabeth line.

But because of the celebrations, the new railway beneath the centre of London is to open specially between around 8am and 8.30pm.

Trains run every five minutes on a short route between Paddington station and Abbey Wood in southeast London.

The closest station to Buckingham Palace, Bond Street, is not yet open.

The Elizabeth line, also known as the Crossrail project, opened three-and-a-half years behind schedule.

Large crowds of travellers have converged at the main station of Hamburg – apparently taking advantage of the “9-Euro-Ticket”, which allows unlimited travel anywhere in the nation during the entire month of June for a one-off payment equivalent to £7.70.

After a journey of around 30 miles, the pass has paid for itself – meaning all travel for the rest of the month is effectively free. While the €9 ticket cannot be used on the fastest expresses, cross-country journeys are perfectly feasible using “Regional Express” trains.

A journey from Hamburg to Salzburg, just across the Austrian border (but allowed with the ticket) takes 14 or 15 hours.

British traveller Barry Freeman told The Independent: “The first test might be this coming weekend. It’s Whitsun weekend.”

Industrial action which was set to affect Green Park and Euston stations in London tomorrow has been averted.

However, a separate, much bigger tube strike planned for Monday 6 June - the day after the long weekend - is currently still set to go ahead.

Here’s everything you need to know:

Ireland’s transport minister, Eamon Ryan, has been accused of being “asleep at the wheel” over the travel chaos at Dublin Airport during the past fortnight.

The Irish hub has seen hours-long queues with several passengers missing flights.

Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Féin spokesperson Pearse Doherty said: “Everyone knew that aviation would rebound once the pandemic subsided, with pent-up demand for international travel, such as it is. Everyone, minister, except yourself and the Daa.

He continued: “Your government can’t get an international airport to function properly on your watch. What does it say to the tourism sector that relies on Dublin Airport to function properly and provide a service that tourists can depend on?

“The fact that the airport plans to function with security staff levels at 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels is not acceptable.

“Now, you’ve been unable to give an assurance that we won’t see scenes like we did last weekend. And frankly, you’ve been asleep at the wheel minister.

“You’ve been asleep at the wheel right throughout this process, only to appear last weekend.”

Mr Ryan responded by saying the scenes last weekend were “inexcusable”, but that he was “confident” passengers would be able to get through smoothly in the coming weeks.

Two women with settled status in the UK claim that airlines have asked them for “additional ID” in order to fly back to the UK within the last week.

Andreea Dumitrache and Lara Parizotto were both travelling on European passports - Romanian and Italian, respectively - when they say easyJet and Ryanair staff insisted they needed to see extra identification.

Ms Parizotto took video of her encounter with an airline worker over the issue.

When they resisted or could not show another form of ID, both say airline staff threatened to deny them boarding.

Read the full story:

“Queues, queues and more queues,” tweeted Daniela Karmios at St Pancras, posting a photo of heavy lines.

Twitter user @Alewidge added, “My Eurostar 9132 from London to Lille Europe is being delayed by 1h45, which means I’m going to miss my connection with TGV 9836 from Lille Europe to Valence TGV. This is the last train of the day in that direction from Lille. What is the solution here?”

Meanwhile Ian T wrote a useful thread for those catching Eurostar trains today, saying: “Arriving at KGX [St Pancras] in the 60-90 [minute] window before your train leaves is the right decision.”