People will likely have to brain train delays, rain and the threat of a hangover over New Year’s again
If there’s one thing New Year’s Eve revellers and gig-goers hoping to get to the barrier have in common, it’s commitment.
Fans queue for hours – sometimes days or covered under blankets – to get to the front of a concert to see their favourite band.
Now people hoping to ring in 2024 by watching the fireworks or having confetti rain down on them in a nightclub are being told to do the same.
Railway operators fear that staff shortages and engineering works may cause delays in the run-up to Sunday night, so some are letting people use tickets as early as today to ensure they can welcome 2024 as planned.
Delays are something Britons have had to get used to this week after Storm Gerrit just days following Storm Pia, sent floods and downed trees< onto the tracks.
Northern Rail, Britain’s second-largest train operator, has told customers their train tickets for Sunday can be used from today.
Last year’s New Year’s celebrations in London saw train stations rammed, with similar scenes predicted due to this year’s planned engineering works
Disruption is ‘expected’ tomorrow, Sunday and Monday, with services being few and far between in the North East on New Year’s Day.
Chief operating officer Tricia Williams said on the company’s travel advice calendar that services may end early, finish at different stations or end up cancelled due to engineering works.
‘Unfortunately, customers travelling over the New Year period should expect disruption,’ Williams said.
‘This is due to limited train crew availability in some areas and planned engineering works.
‘We strongly advise customers to check before you travel on those days.’
CrossCountry, which connects major British cities such as Birmingham, Cardiff and Edinburgh, says riders should brace themselves for ‘extremely busy’ trains, ‘last-minute cancellations’ and changed timetables.
Miserable weather brought on by Storm Gerrit will cause commuters more headaches even as the Met Office says the ‘worst’ is over
Tickets dated Sunday purchased on or before Thursday can be freely used to travel on Saturday or New Year’s Day.
‘Please be aware that services will finish earlier than usual on Sunday,’ CrossCountry added.
Chiltern Railways cautioned customers that services are at ‘high risk of short-notice cancellations and disruption’.
Network Rail warns that some lines will be down over New Year’s due to planned engineering works.
London Victoria station has had no Southeastern services since last Saturday and won’t do until New Year’s Day.
Journeys from London Liverpool Street to Norwich, Ipswich or Colchester have similarly seen disruptions through the Chelmsford area since yesterday and will do so until Monday.
Several Avanti West Coast routes from London Euston will also be running just once an hour over New Year’s, including those heading to Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.
As much as the ‘worst’ has passed, forecasters predict Storm Gerrit will continue to hurl strong winds, rain and snow at the UK today.
The Met Office has no yellow weather warnings in place today but most of Britain will become a patchwork of alerts for rain, wind and snow tomorrow.
This includes rain and wind in all of Wales, rain in Northern Ireland, wind across the southern English coast, rain and snow in southern Scotland and even more – you guessed it – rain and snow in most of the country north of Glasgow.
New Year’s Eve too, with a yellow weather alert for wind stretching across the Welsh and southern English coast.
Scotland’s railway network was particularly hard-hit by the bad weather earlier this week.
Landslips caused by the rain led to Network Rail line closures between Cupar and Dundee on Wednesday, while engineers had to clear up over 100 tons of debris between Dumfries and Kilmarnock.
LNER’s line between Edinburgh and Aberdeen has only just recovered from Wednesday’s heavy rains and winds that forced it to close.
New year, same old delayed trains.