Great Western Coffee Shop

Rail services in parts of northern England and Scotland are being reduced due to high levels of staff sickness and a backlog in training.

TransPennine Express is introducing a temporary timetable with fewer connection along the West Coast Mainline from 12 September.

The firm said it would "provide more stability and certainty for customers".

Services in Manchester, Liverpool, Preston, Lancaster, Edinburgh and Glasgow will be affected.

Nine services are being withdrawn and eight partially withdrawn with full details available on the operator's website.

The timetable changes follow months of disruption for passengers with services being cancelled due to sickness, Covid and ongoing national rail strike action.

From Monday 12 September, there will be a reduction from 40 to 31 scheduled services on the Anglo-Scottish route, with 15 Northbound and 16 Southbound services per day (inclusive of full and part services).

We are finalising arrangements to put in rail replacement buses at certain times of the day to provide additional connectivity for stations between Motherwell– Carlisle, Penrith – Lockerbie, Edinburgh-Carlisle and Carlisle – Lockerbie to supplement rail services, where possible, for those customers whose regular journey option via train is impacted.