Expect rail disruption on New Year’s Eve 'due to staff shortages'

Northern, which is also controlled by the Government, said it will run no services on six lines on Sunday – New Year’s Eve – due to “train crew unavailability”.

The affected routes with a “Do Not Travel” alert 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 around 4pm.

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.

Earlier this week the train operator said customers are strongly advised to ‘check before you travel’. Services should return to normal on Wednesday, 3 January.

Chief operating officer at Northern, Tricia Williams said: “Unfortunately, customers travelling over the New Year period should expect disruption.

“This is due to limited train crew availability in some areas and planned engineering works. We strongly advise customers to ‘check before you travel’ on those days.”

Here was the advice from Northern

Avanti West Coast axed several of it services to and from London Euston due to a staff shortage.

A Department for Transport spokesperson 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.”