Staff shortages hit hopes for extra trains to London for Queen's funeral

Avanti West Coast, which operates services between the region and the capital, says it is working hard to provide extra trains but admits a shortage of train crew, particularly at the weekend, has hit plans, although strikes planned for Thursday and Saturday have been called off.

Four charter services a day are being provided from Manchester Piccadilly, which Avanti says is its busiest route, with customers from Preston and Blackpool left to find any availability on the regular services or face an initial journey to Manchester.

But Avanti says Manchester is already working to a reduced timetable while the services through Preston are operating fully.

A spokesperson for Avanti West Coast said: “With the sad news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, we’re expecting a great many mourners to visit London on our services.

"We’re working hard with industry partners to see where we can put on additional services during the period of mourning to enable people to pay their respects.

"With that in mind, we’ve been able to put in place up to eight additional services a day on our busiest route between London and Manchester. This will add a total of around 16,000 extra seats.

"We’re running our normal timetable from Preston and a reduced timetable on our Manchester route. We’ve analysed passenger data and are already running additional services where they are most needed between Manchester and London.

“The reduced timetable is due to a shortage of traincrew. We’re working hard to rebuild our timetable in a resilient and sustainable way that will allow us to gradually increase services without being reliant on traincrew overtime, which has fallen dramatically in recent weeks.”

The service from Preston to London Euston currently entails of two trains per hour, one of which travels via the West Midlands..

On weekdays, there are six direct trains from Blackpool North to London Euston, but on Saturdays just one.

“We’re acutely aware that Saturday and Sunday are likely to be extremely busy with people all over the UK travelling to London to pay their respects. Saturdays and Sundays are particularly difficult at the current time as they had the highest reliance on overtime.

"We will be running four charter services a day between Manchester and London to provide additional capacity and help spread customer demand.

“We expect our trains to be extremely busy during this time, so we ask people to check before they travel and leave as much time as possible for their journey.”

“We advise customers to check the Avanti West Coast website www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/travel-information/plan-your-journey/hm-the-queen for the latest timetable, ticket information and travel advice during the mourning period,"

The lying-in-state of Her late Majesty continues 24 hours a day at Westminster Hall until 6.30am on Monday, when her state funeral at Westminster Abbey take place from 11am.

An estimated 400,000 people are expected to visit the lying-in-state, which has already seen miles-long queues, expected to grow even bigger over the weekend.