Passengers have responded furiously on social media after hundreds of trains were cancelled on Sunday.
Many rail crew who do have Sundays in their normal working week chose not to work and instead watch the Euro 2024 final.
Passengers on Great Western Railway were urged not to travel after 6pm on links between London Paddington, the west of England and South Wales.
At 8pm, passenger Debbie Wylde wrote: “Nightmare. Still trying to get home to Bath. Delays, cancellations and cramped trains.”
Northern Trains issued a ‘Do Not Travel’ notice for six lines in northwest England, but passengers on other routes complained of short-notice cancellations. One, Howard, posted on X:
“After 7.48pm tonight (Sun) there is one scheduled service between Manchester (any station) and Bolton. It was the 10.01pm from Manchester Piccadilly.
He added: “Our railways are a sodding disgrace and how Labour can sort this out quickly I don’t know, but it should be first in their in tray.”
Northern cancelled more than 100 trains on Sunday, representing over 9 per cent of its planned schedule.
Great Western Railway says it cancelled about 5 per cent of the intended services.
LNER, which cancelled over 20 trains on the East Coast main line between London, Yorkshire and Edinburgh due to “a shortage of train crew”.
In response to a request from The Independent about whether the shortage was expected or whether passengers should expect more off the same, an LNER spokesperson said: “Our priority is keeping our customers on the move and as such we always strive to run our timetable as planned.
“When there are any changes, we use our social media channels and live updates on our website, as well as direct emails to keep our customers informed.
“The information we share includes details for those entitled to Delay Repay”
LNER is state-run, as is Northern.
Before the election, Labour promised “more reliable services”, saying: “A unified system will plan and deliver an achievable, reliable timetable and ensure that the network is able to deliver it, so that the services promised to passengers are delivered.”
In response to the mass cancellations on Sunday, the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said: “Fourteen years without a workforce strategy has left our railways understaffed, reliant on voluntary working and lurching from one crisis to the…
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