There will be more cuts to the timetable on routes in and out of York as the need to isolate because of Covid continues to affect staff at the local rail operators.
From 4th January the local service to Sheffield which runs via Ulleskelf, Church Fenton and Sherburn in Elmet will be replaced by a bus.
Some peak time trains on the York to Harrogate line will be withdrawn and the Hull to Halifax service, that is part of the link from Selby to Leeds and Hull, will only run once every two hours.
This is in addition to cancellations already announced by LNER, TransPennine Express and CrossCountry trains.
The rail industry is struggling with staff in all areas having to take time off to self-isolate
[tptn_list limit=3 daily=1 hour_range=1]
The news comes as London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is launching a new campaign called ‘Be Kind’, to tackle anti-social behaviour experienced by railway workers.
The Be Kind campaign, which began as an LNER initiative and now includes partners from the wider rail industry, will see members of station and onboard staff wear a range of badges to encourage people to be kind when travelling by train.
A Northern Trains spokesperson commented about the latest service cuts:
“Like any other business our colleagues can be affected by Coronavirus, directly and indirectly, and this can impact the availability of our train crew on any given day.
“Whilst we do operate with additional staff it can sometimes be difficult to provide cover for every service.
“Therefore we have had to make the difficult decision to reduce service levels on some routes on our network.
“We have worked to minimise the impact of Covid and traincrew availability as much as possible but we are advising customers that there may be short notice alterations to services and they should check the details of their journey before they travel via nationalrail.co.uk.
“These service reductions are likely to continue into 2022.
“We would like to apologise for any disruption that may occur as result of the impact of Coronavirus.”