Hundreds of New Year’s Eve trains cancelled as ‘do not travel’ warning issued – live

Hundreds of trains scheduled to run on New Year’s Eve have been cancelled, with one government-run operator warning it will not be able to run any trains on six of its routes on New Year’s Eve.

Northern Trains has issued a Do Not Travel notice for 31 December on links from Manchester Victoria to Chester and Stalybridge, and from Manchester Piccadilly to Chester via Altrincham.

Passengers are also warned no trains will run on routes connecting Preston with Colne, Bolton with Clitheroe and Lancaster with Morecambe on the last day of the year.

The rail firm is telling passengers: “We will be operating a reduced service across the northwest due to train crew unavailability.”

Northern Trains staff who are based west of the Pennines do not have Sunday included in their working week, and so services on New Year’s Eve – as on any other Sunday – rely upon overtime.

Elsewhere, cancellations on long-distance and local trains are multiplying. LNER, which connects London King’s Cross with Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland, has cancelled or curtailed more than 20 intercity trains on New Year’s Eve.

On the Thameslink line through central London, connecting Bedford and Luton with Gatwick and Brighton, most trains are being cancelled due to staff shortage. The usual overnight services will not run at all in the early hours of New Year’s day.

The first Eurostar passenger train to leave London St Pancras International since Friday departed 10 minutes late, destination Paris.

Every seat on board was filled – the vast majority with passengers who had booked for the 8.01am train on New Year’s Eve weeks or months ago.

Some of the 30,000-plus passengers stranded by the cancellation of all links between London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam had been able to get seats on board – but the vast majority are still trying to find alternative ways to reach their New Year’s Eve destinations.

Signs at the Eurostar terminal warn: “We have no ticket availability today. We will not be able to process any sales or exchanges. Thank you for your understanding.”

Prices for alternative transport have soared. The last seat on any British Airways flight from Paris CDG to London Heathrow on New Year’s Eve sold for almost £700.

FlixBus, which runs between London and the European capitals served by Eurostar, has very few seats available – from Paris only a late-night departure is available, with an overnight journey to London.

Eurostar is paying a maximum of £150 per night for hotels while passengers wait for available seats.

As we bid farewell to 2023, unsettled weather will continue to persist in the UK with the start of 2024 promising a blend of rain, gale-force winds, and a touch of frost, according to the Met Office forecast.

Sunday will see blustery showers across the nation, with a glimmer of respite in the north and east, while in the far northeast of Scotland, rain and gale-force winds persist.

The first day of 2024 will kick off on a drier note, the forecast shows, offering a temporary respite. However, scattered showers decide to crash the New Year’s party in the north. As the day progresses, clouds are set to gather momentum from the southwest, with rain making its way northeast.

While the south enjoys mild temperatures, the rest of the country will see settle for averages – a classic start to the year.

Eurostar services are set to resume today with one tunnel now operational, the company said in a statement. However, it warned commuters to expect further delays and busy stations.

The “unprecedented” flooding was brought under control on Saturday night, Eurostar said, meaning “at least one tunnel can now be used”.

But speed restrictions and uncertainty surrounding the second tunnel means further disruption is possible, the operator has warned.

Delays and cancellations are also expected on some domestic routes on Sunday thanks to staff shortages and bad weather.

While the flooding of high-speed tunnels beneath the River Thames has already caused chaos, staff shortages are also set to compound the transportation woes on New Year’s Eve.

Northern Rail has warned of “significant” disruption today due to train crew unavailability.

Services will finish earlier than usual, at around 4pm, and are expected to be “extremely busy”.

The company has issued a “do not travel” warning for these four routes including Heysham to Lancaster, Manchester Victoria to Stalybridge and Clitheroe to Bolton

LNER has also cancelled and altered some of its services from London King’s Cross station for tomorrow due to a shortage of train crew.

Passengers stranded at St Pancras said the disruption had ruined their New Year’s Eve plans, which included going to Disneyland, seeing the Eiffel Tower, and going to an ice hockey match.

Two newlyweds visiting from New York said their dream of seeing in the new year at Disneyland Paris was in tatters.

Nicole Carrera, 29, and her husband Christopher, 31, had to rebook for a 2.30pm outbound train on Sunday.

Ms Carrera, who works for cosmetics firm L’Oréal, told the PA news agency: “We’ve been in London since Wednesday and we wanted to leave today because we were actually supposed to go to Disney Paris tomorrow for New Year’s Eve.

“So obviously those plans our ruined because now we won’t get into Paris tomorrow until about 6pm.”

Air fares between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and London have predictably soared, and many flights have sold out.

The last seat on a British Airways flight from Paris to London on New Year’s Eve was sold at a one-way fare of almost £700.

There is no possibility of an airline-style payout of hundreds of pounds. The best you can hope for is, if you travel with Eurostar, you may get the cost of your ticket refunded and/or a voucher for a future journey – despite having (eventually) travelled.

Although Eurostar said services would return on Sunday, it warned of delays and busy stations.

The company said: “There will be some speed restrictions in place in the morning which may lead to delays and stations are expected to be very busy.”

The Met Office has warned there could be disruption to domestic journeys this weekend, as windy conditions sweep across the UK.

A warning for rain and snow has been issued for much of Scotland.