Grand Central urges passengers not to travel over Christmas and New Year without seat reservations

A number of northbound and southbound services between Sunderland and London Kings Cross, which call at Hartlepool, are already standing room only.

Grand Central is appealing to passengers not to travel without seat reservations and to use other services where trains are full.

They said on its website: “Throughout the festive period, we are anticipating a high volume of passengers travelling on our services, particularly over the weekends.

“This means that our trains will be busy and may be standing room only for customers who have not reserved a seat.”

All Advance tickets include a seat reservation. Seat reservations can be booked subject to availability at any station ticket office.

All northbound services from London Kings Cross to Sunderland are standing room only on Thursday, December 19, Friday, December 20, and Christmas Eve.

Many other services in both ways between now and New Year only have a few seats left.

No trains will run on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day.

Seat reservations can also be booked by contacting @GC_Rail on Twitter or GrandCentralRail on Facebook.

And the customer relations team can be contacted on 0345 603 4852 Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm.

Services on which passengers are advised not to travel without a seat are shown below.

Two weeks ago, Grand Central came in for criticism after cancelling several services at short notice due to a shortage of drivers.