Most trains out of York cancelled over Christmas holiday – after strikes set to cripple holiday travel
The full extent of the impact of engineering works on rail travel from York Station at Christmas has been revealed – as more strikes are set to bring added rail misery.
As we reported last week, track upgrade work at York will cause disruption from Christmas Eve until Monday 2 January.
Now the changed timetables have been released – revealing most train services are set to be diverted around York during that time.
And an extra strike by rail workers in the RMT union on Christmas Eve will bring more travel misery – see below.
Network Rail has announced one change to its York Station upgrade works: the plans no longer affect Marygate car park and it will remain open as usual throughout the work.
Here are some changes to the timetable caused by the York Station works.
LNER East Coast Main Line
Tuesday 27 December – Friday 30 December
- Hourly service between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh: no trains will call at York
- One service each way every two hours between London King’s Cross and York
- Rail replacement coach service will operate each way between York, Northallerton and Darlington.
Saturday 31 December
- Half-hourly service each way between London King’s Cross and Newcastle/Scotland with most services not calling at York
- An additional service each way every two hours between London King’s Cross and York
- A small number of northbound services from York
Sunday 1 January
- Until 12pm, services to and from Newcastle and Edinburgh Waverley will start from and terminate at Darlington
- Services to and from London King’s Cross will start from and terminate at Doncaster
- From 12pm, an hourly service will run each way between London King’s Cross and Newcastle/Scotland with most not calling at York.
- There’ll be an additional hourly service between London King’s Cross and York.
- There will be a small number of northbound services from York.
- A rail replacement coach service will operate each way between York, Northallerton and Darlington.
TransPennine Express
Tuesday 27 to Saturday 31 December
- There will be no train services from York heading towards Scarborough, Saltburn or Newcastle
- Buses will replace train services from York station.
Find out more
These websites will have regular updates:
- National Rail Enquiries
- LNER: Live train journey planner
- TransPennine Express website
- CrossCountry Trains website
- Grand Central Rail website
- Northern Rail website.
For the latest on the disruption caused by the strikes, see here.
Extra strikes
Network Rail workers are due to stage an extra strike over Christmas in the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions – but talks will still proceed on Tuesday.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will press ahead with two 48-hour strikes next week and are now set to walk out from 6pm on December 24 until 6am on December 27.
So these are the full list of RMT strike dates:
- Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 December (48 hours)
- Friday 16 and Saturday 17 December (48 hours)
- Saturday 24 December from 6pm to Tuesday 27 December at 6am
- Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 January (48 hours)
- Friday 6 and Saturday 7 January (48 hours).
Strikes affecting 14 train companies will go ahead next week, although talks will be held with the Rail Delivery Group on Tuesday.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said it was unfortunate that the union had been “compelled to take this action due to the continuing intransigence of the employers”.
He said: “We remain available for talks in order to resolve these issues but we will not bow to pressure from the employers and the Government to the detriment of our members.”