Miserable new year for rail commuters via London Victoria amid strikes and cancellations

Millions of commuters face a dismal return to work next week, with rail companies cutting timetables because of coronavirus-related staff absences.

New Year’s Eve revellers have also been advised to avoid trains on many routes because of a strike.

Rail companies said that staff absences were running at 8.9 per cent in the seven days to Wednesday.

The train cancellations will fuel demands to cut isolation to five days to protect key services after the government last week reduced the period from ten days to a week for those who have negative lateral flow tests.

Southern announced yesterday that it would not run its busy commuter services into Victoria until January 10.

Great Northern and Thameslink are to introduce reduced timetables from Tuesday until further