Rail chaos in Sheffield continues due to train staff isolating

Northern has again warned people not to travel on some routes as many services are cancelled.

The train operator this morning asked people not to travel between Leeds and Sheffield via Dearne, Sheffield and Leeds via Moorthorpe, Sheffield and York, and Doncaster and Leeds, due to staff shortages.

It also said all rail services between Sheffield and Lincoln via Worksop, Retford and Gainsborough had been cancelled, with a bus replacement service in place from 9am.

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Northern said the cancellations were due to staff either testing positive for Covid or having to isolate after being pinged by the NHS app, and disruption is expected to continue throughout the day.

Bus replacement services are unavailable on some routes due to a lack of drivers and vehicles.

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Chris Jackson, regional director at Northern, said yesterday evening: “We have already seen cancellations on Saturday and have had to tell customers on some routes not to travel. We had hoped to be able to operate more services on Sunday, but the situation hasn’t improved, and we’ve been left with no choice other than to issue the same warning for Sunday.”

The heat added to the disruption yesterday, with speed restrictions introduced on some routes due to high track temperatures.

Passengers who are delayed by 15 minutes or more have been advised to hold on to their tickets and claim compensation by visiting northernrailway.co.uk/delayrepay.

For live travel updates, you can visit northernrailway.co.uk/stations and select the station you are travelling from or tweet @northernassist.