Rail services were severely reduced on Sunday as many train drivers and other on-board staff refused to work overtime shifts on the day of England’s opening Euro 2024 football match.
LNER, which runs trains from York to London and Edinburgh on the East Coast Main Line, and Northern, which operates services from York to Leeds, were both badly affected.
Many train drivers and other crew members do not have Sunday working included in their contracts, with numerous operators often relying on them volunteering to work extra paid shifts to run timetabled services on that day.
Unions must give 14 days’ notice of official strike action, but drivers can wait until just a handful of days in advance before confirming if they will work on a rest day.
A rail industry source described Sunday as a “perfect storm” for poor staff availability due England’s match against Serbia combined with it being Father’s Day and also the forecast of warmer weather in many places.
Publicly-owned Northern issued a “do not travel” alert at 4.42pm on Sunday for its routes in north-west England for the rest of the day.
It said this was “due to the unavailability of train crew”, with many late-night trains cancelled and no replacement buses provided.
Members of train drivers’ union Aslef are taking action short of a strike at Northern between 1 June and 27 July, affecting availability of staff.
Sunday working is part of the usual roster for drivers employed by LNER, but the publicly-owned operator announced shortly before 6pm on Saturday it had cancelled 13 services on the following day – including eight between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh – due to “a shortage of train crew”.