'Do not travel' alert issued for New Year's Eve amid 'train crew availability' issue

Staff shortages on trains are causing widespread disruption to rail services across Britain and will disrupt travel on New Year's Eve, operators have warned.

Northern, which is also controlled by the Government, said it would 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.

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Meanwhile 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.

It comes as Eurostar services from London have been cancelled “until the end of the day” today - Saturday - as heavy rain and strong winds threaten to spoil people’s new year plans. No high-speed services are expected to run between Ebbsfleet International and London St Pancras International today because a tunnel under the Thames is flooded.

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.

A shortage of train crew at Edinburgh meant CrossCountry