Flooding piled on the misery for rail commuters in York today, with GNER forced to cancel all services from the city.

Many Northern Spirit services around York remain paralysed and rail operators are continuing to advise customers not to travel unless absolutely necessary.

A spokesman for GNER said that it had been a difficult time for the company ever since the Hatfield disaster more than three weeks ago.

"Yesterday's flooding at Doncaster has meant we are running no services from York today. It is not a good day for long distance travel. GNER's services have been disrupted since October 17 and since then we have been working to revised timetables.

"In addition to the speed restrictions imposed by Railtrack, the recent flooding has caused us even more problems.

"It is difficult to estimate costs at the moment, except to say that the last few weeks will have a huge financial impact on the company."

A spokesperson for Northern Spirit said there were difficulties, but that the company was coping. "The recent flooding has really strained our resources. The three main routes out of York have been causing us real problems.

"Flooding around Skelton Bridge, north of York, on the route to Newcastle has caused major problems and both the York-to-Leeds and the York-to-Scarborough routes have been closed since early last week, although we have been running an alternative service from day one."

Railwatch