Staff shortages continue to disrupt rail travel

LNER cancelled a number of services on Friday

Disruption to rail services caused by staff shortages is expected to continue, affecting New Year's Eve travel.

Rail companies are also warning severe weather could exacerbate delays and cancellations.

London North Eastern Railway (LNER), whose services are controlled by the Department for Transport, has cancelled some trains with others severely delayed or only running on part of the planned route.

Staff shortages are similarly affecting Northern, also controlled by the government, Avanti West Coast and Cross Country services.

Train operators have warned the disruption will affect travel on New Year's Eve and have advised passengers to check before their journeys.

Northern said it would run no services on six lines on Sunday due to "train crew unavailability".

Northern is now run by the government

The affected routes connect Manchester Victoria with Chester and Stalybridge, Manchester Piccadilly with Chester via Altrincham, and Preston with Colne.

There will also be no trains between Morecambe and Lancaster, or Clitheroe and Bolton.

Services on other lines will finish earlier than usual at about 16:00 GMT, the operator said.

Some Northern staff only work on Sundays as voluntary paid overtime, creating the risk of not having enough available employees to run the full timetable, PA Media said.

'Held to account'

LNER said "severe weather", with strong winds affecting parts of the East Coast Main Line, led to disruption on Friday and could affect services on Saturday and Sunday.

A fault with the signalling system between Newcastle and Berwick-upon-Tweed meant some southbound lines were blocked, affecting LNER, CrossCountry, Lumo and TransPennine Express services.

The rail industry body The Rail Delivery Group said it understood it was "frustrating" when services did not run as expected.

"The majority of train operators are planning to run the published timetable between now and new year when we expect services to be particularly busy," a spokesperson said.

"But, there will be some local challenges that affect some services."

Passengers were warned train services could start later or finish earlier than usual.

The Department for Transport, which runs two of the operators affected, said: "While staffing is a matter for industry, we are working with them to ensure they are able to deliver the services that passengers need, making clear that we will hold them to account if they let passengers down."