Edinburgh trains: Widespread disruption to trains to continue into Hogmanay due to staff shortages

Staff shortages are causing widespread disruption to rail services across the UK, and may see trains delayed or cancelled on Hogmanay.

London North Eastern Railway (LNER), whose services are controlled by the Department for Transport, cancelled at least six long-distance trains on Friday due to a lack of available staff. The same reason meant several other services were severely delayed or only ran part of the planned route.

And now there are concerns that train disruption will continue until at least Sunday, when thousands of people are due to travel to Edinburgh to celebrate Hogmanay.

A shortage of train crew at Edinburgh meant CrossCountry cancelled a number of trains to and from the station. Avanti West Coast axed several of it services to and from London Euston due to a staff shortage. 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.

LNER also suffered disruption on Friday due to "severe weather", with strong winds affecting parts of the East Coast Main Line. This meant a service due to run from Aberdeen to London King's Cross started from Newcastle.

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

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."