CrossCountry customers travelling ahead of New Year’s Eve are being asked to double-check journeys as train crew shortages could lead to higher numbers of train cancellations.

Short-notice changes and cancellations are expected on CrossCountry services on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 December.

Services that do operate are likely to be extremely busy and customers are advised to check their entire journey before travelling.

Though services across all CrossCountry routes could be impacted, areas expected to be particularly affected by cancellations over the weekend include Cardiff to Nottingham via Birmingham, and Leeds to Edinburgh via Newcastle.

As usual over New Year’s Eve, rail services by all train operators will finish earlier than normal so that planned engineering work can take place on the rail network over the bank holiday.

Planned upgrades in the Birmingham New Street area on New Year’s Day will see journey times extended by up to 30 minutes on several CrossCountry routes.

Customers with tickets for journeys operated by CrossCountry services purchased on or before Thursday 28 December can instead travel on Saturday 30 December or Monday 1 January instead for no additional charge.

For journeys involving connections with other train operators, customers should check with the relevant operators for details on ticket acceptance before travelling.

Mark Goodall, CrossCountry’s Service Delivery Director, said: “We know that a lot of people are travelling over the festive period and we’re sorry that services around New Year’s Eve this year are likely to be impacted by train crew availability.

“I’d ask that customers check before they travel and continue to be respectful to on-train colleagues who are working as hard as they can to get people where they want to be.”

Customers can check the latest travel information on the CrossCountry website or with National Rail Enquiries.

Further information on delay repay compensation and ticket acceptance is available at: https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/disruption