Rail chaos set to continue for rest of 2019

‘I am really sorry for the disruption to our customers’ journeys. I know what a busy time it is with people travelling during the festive period,’ said managing director of TransPennine Express

Last call: the final trains north and south on the East Coast main line on Christmas Eve will be earlier than usual (Simon Calder)

TransPennine Express begins Christmas Eve as it will no doubt continue – with a cancelled long-distance train.

An express to Manchester airport was due to depart from Newcastle at 12.08am on Tuesday, but like dozens of trains on the previous days, it was cancelled.

“This is due to an operational incident,” said the train operator.

It followed the cancellation of more than three dozen services on Monday, including many links between Scotland, Tyneside, Manchester and Liverpool.

The train operator, which is part of FirstGroup, curtailed many others – for example, terminating a Manchester-Glasgow train at Preston.

Leo Goodwin, the managing director of TransPennine Express, said: “I am really sorry for the disruption to our customers’ journeys. I know what a busy time it is with people travelling during the festive period.

“We have had a number of issues to contend with; crew training caused by the late delivery of some of our new trains, a maintenance backlog and the implementation of a temporary timetable along one of our routes.

“This has unfortunately had a knock-on effect to other services. We are working really hard to sort this for our customers and as we introduce more new trains we should see an improvement to people’s journeys.”

Northern Rail, which covers much of the same territory from Cheshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire to southern Scotland, cancelled more than 30 trains on Monday, including some long-distance services such as Leeds to Carlisle, York to Blackpool North and Dumfries to Newcastle.

Transport for Wales (TfW) cancelled more than 20 trains and curtailed 65 more. The trans-Wales service from Swansea to Crewe, which is scheduled to take over five hours, in fact, lasted only 21 minutes before terminating at Llanelli.

TfW has already cancelled more than 20 trains on Christmas Eve – adding to the problems of rail travellers in Wales.

From the close of service on Monday, no trains will run in or out of London Paddington, the hub for the Great Western lines to south Wales and the west of England, until Saturday.

Across at London Waterloo, which is normally the busiest transport hub in Europe, the strike by members of the RMT union entered its fourth week.

The one-month stoppage by staff working for South Western Railway (SWR) is the latest in a long-running dispute over the role of guards.

SWR is running about half the normal number of trains to southwest London, Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire and beyond.

The strike is due to conclude on 2 January 2020, the day that rail fares rise across Britain.

On Christmas Eve, many lines will see last trains much earlier than usual. On LNER from London King’s Cross, the final departure to Edinburgh is at 6pm; the last southbound departure from the Scottish capital is scheduled for 3.30pm.

No trains will run in the UK on Christmas Day, and very few services will operate on 26 December.

Industrial action also hit travellers booked on Eurostar from London St Pancras to Paris and Brussels, with eight trains cancelled.

The cross-Channel train operator has already axed 10 trains to and from the French and Belgian capitals on Boxing Day. It will run a reduced service for the rest of the year.