RAIL disruption has had a big impact on firms in York and North Yorkshire, particularly retail and tourism ventures, business chiefs report today.

Organisations like the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, the North Yorkshire Federation of Small Businesses and the York Tourism Bureau are still trying to assess the damage from loss of bookings, lack of sales, missed appointments and big postal delays.

It is a continuing process as Railtrack announce more than 100 speed restrictions on sections of track used by GNER, doubling journey times from York to London to four hours; and its expectation that it will take up to four weeks to clear a mile-and-a-half of track affected by a landslip at Heck, 11 miles north of Doncaster. The biggest consequence has not been through disruption in the movement of freight, but the uncertainty for business people resulting from dislocation and scrapping of the timetables, said Roland Harris, chief executive of the regional Chamber.

He said: "I'm not persuaded that there has been a mass transfer from rail to road. Most freight tends to be large bulk cargo which is moved out of hours, but the major impact has been on tourism and retail. Even before the flooding we were getting reports of cancellations of bookings to York because of rail disruption.

"For the most part there has not been significant rail disruption on local services, but it did mean that many business people were unable to make meetings to London and there were more people unable to get to work."

The loss in tourism also encompassed day trippers who might otherwise have spent a shopping day in York, he said.

The latest news from York Tourist Bureau seems to be upbeat. A spokesperson said: "A latest check at the tourist information centre suggests there were fewer than five cancellations.

"But that is largely because we are trying to give those who booked alternative dates and many are agreeing.

"What is of concern is that the number of new bookings over the past two weeks have visibly gone down", she said, but added that there were signs that this was increasing as rail services improved.

The slow postal service was singled out as a major cause for concern by Mandy Melka, York-based secretary of the 600-member North Yorkshire Federation of Small Businesses.

After sounding out some members, she said that company training sessions had to be postponed and meetings had been cancelled. But communications had slowed as the post arrived late. "Even Red Star deliveries have been affected," she reported.

A spokeswoman for Post Office Counters Ltd could offer no respite. She said: "Even before the flooding we were affected by the work ordered by Railtrack in consequence of the Hatfield disaster and the floods then compounded the problem with no services at all operating between Doncaster and Newcastle."

As a result some mail was diverted from rail to road and air. Although rail disruption had lessened, the continuing rail problems "are bound to have and effect on Christmas mail.

"We don't want to see that happen but we have no short-term plans to discontinue using rail.

"The rail industry must not take our use for granted.

"Meanwhile we have various contingency plans to adapt where we need to."