New Year’s partygoers warned they may be stranded due to more …

New Year’s Eve revellers have been warned they may be stranded or face a battle to board trains amid expected further disruption ^[1] on the railways over the weekend.

West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway said passengers will be left with “very limited alternative options” once final services predicted to be “significantly oversubscribed” have departed.

The operators warned of overcrowding and queues at London Euston and Birmingham New Street and became the latest to advise people to travel as early as Saturday to avoid missing planned festivities.

Chiltern Railways said there was a “high risk” of disruption as it cancelled one of just four trains running after midnight on New Year’s Eve out of London. Previously, the firm said these late services were “not expected” to be affected.

On Friday, West Midlands Railway said it now anticipated delays and cancellations to services on New Year’s Eve because of damage caused by Storm Gerrit ^[2] and staff shortages.

It told customers: “Due to the combined impact of recent storm damage across the network, higher than usual rates of sickness absence within our train crew teams, as well as the comparative limited capacity of our Sunday timetable, we are unfortunately anticipating crowding and disruption to services on New Year’s Eve.”

Eight routes will be affected in total including services from Birmingham to Hereford, nearly 60 miles away, and Shrewsbury, more than 40 miles away.

People have been advised to travel as early as possible if they want a disruption-free New Year's Eve Credit: Jamie Lorriman for The Telegraph

Meanwhile, London Northwestern Railway, which is part of the same rail franchise, issued a near identical update and warned of likely queues at London Euston in the evening.

“We also anticipate that services departing from Euston during the late evening and after midnight will be significantly oversubscribed,” the company said.

“Queue systems will be in operation and when final services have departed, there will be very limited alternative options available for you to complete your journey in the small hours of New Years Day while the wider transport network is closed down.”

Six routes will be affected by alterations and cancellations with replacement buses running between London Euston and Northampton as well as Birmingham New Street to Liverpool.

Other operators also told travellers to expect disruption with Thameslink, which runs services in and around the capital, warning customers they may not be able to board the first train to their destination on Sunday and that services would be “exceptionally busy”.

Thameslink said services throughout Sunday afternoon and evening would be significantly reduced with cancellations most likely between Bedford and Luton.

The firm warned customers they could have to wait several hours between services from London and Brighton and added that customers looking to travel back from London towards Bedford, Brighton and Three Bridges would be unable to do so.

“Thameslink services will not run overnight with no alternative journey options,” it said.

Operators urged to ‘come clean’

On Friday, LNER was forced to cancel six long-distance trains on the East Coast mainline due to lack of available train crew while ScotRail services continued to face severe disruption ^[3].

Avanti West Coast was again forced to cancel, delay or alter services due to a shortage of train crews.

The updates from operators came after they were urged to “come clean” over which services are likely to be cancelled this weekend after a second day of major disruption on Friday.

Engineering works and driver shortages have caused delays, with rail firms warning that there is a “high risk” of weekend cancellations because of a lack of train staff.

Trains not running, crowded platforms, just the end to the year people might want to avoid Credit: George Cracknell Wright

Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, warned that passengers needed clarity on “self-inflicted” cancellations such as crew shortages and which trains would run this weekend.

He said: “Come clean now, that’s what people need. I would prefer to know well in advance what is happening so it can be communicated to passengers and they can make their plans. The worst possible thing is a last-minute change, particularly late trains being cancelled.”

Mr Street acknowledged that it was going to be “tricky” for operators, with many services relying on voluntary working, but added: “My insistence is that we know early what is happening.”

Passengers planning to travel on Northern Rail, which calls at more than 20 per cent of stations in the UK, have been told that tickets booked for Sunday are valid from Saturday as the operator warned them to “expect disruption” on New Year’s Eve.

The firm said that services may finish early, not run at all or terminate at different stations owing to engineering works. Tricia Williams, the chief operating officer, 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.”

CrossCountry, which operates throughout the UK from Aberdeen to Penzance, said that tickets for Sunday can be used on Saturday or New Year’s Day instead, as long as they had been bought on or before Friday, when most disruption started ^[4].

The operator said trains would be “extremely busy” and services “may be subject to last-minute cancellations”.

Strong winds likely to cause further disruption

Mark Goodall, the firm’s Service Delivery Director, said: “We know that a lot of people are travelling over the festive period and we’re sorry that services around New Year’s Eve this year are likely to be impacted by train crew availability.

“I’d ask that customers check before they travel and continue to be respectful to on-train colleagues who are working as hard as they can to get people where they want to be.”

Rail firms are fighting an increasing backlog of passengers after crew shortages exacerbated delays caused by Storm Gerrit.

With delays and cancellations affecting some routes on Friday, the Met Office issued six new yellow weather warnings for wind and rain for Saturday, raising further concerns for schedules.

Strong winds are likely to cause “delays to road, rail, air and ferry transport” until 3am on New Year’s Eve, forecasters said.

Blustery and showery conditions are set to continue into Sunday, with the heaviest and most frequent rainfall across western parts of the UK.

Alex Burkill, a Meteorologist from the Met Office, said there would be “a chilly feel to things as the clock strikes midnight.”

References

^{^} further disruption (www.telegraph.co.uk)
^{^} damage caused by Storm Gerrit (www.telegraph.co.uk)
^{^} face severe disruption (www.telegraph.co.uk)
^{^} most disruption started (www.telegraph.co.uk)