People planning to head out of York by train for the Christmas and Millennium festivities were today warned to book early, or face being stranded.

GNER, the company that runs Intercity services through York, is bracing itself for a bumper period as thousands of revellers take to the rails to join family and friends elsewhere in the country.

Travel will be restricted over the holiday period, with no services running on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, although some extra services will be supplied on other days, including New Year's Day.

GNER opened its reservation system today for advance bookings, and anticipates more than 50,000 reservations will be made in the next four weeks for travel over the holiday period.

"Anyone planning to travel with GNER over Christmas and New Year should be thinking about buying their tickets and reserving a seat as soon as possible to be sure of travelling on the train of their choice," said GNER spokesman, David Mallender.

Services passing southbound through York from Scotland are expected to be extremely busy after the New Year holiday as thousands of partygoers return from the Hogmanay festivities in Edinburgh.

GNER Christmas and New Year train services are:

Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23, a normal service will run, with some additional trains from London to Edinburgh

Christmas Eve, additional services will operate during the day, with the last direct train services from London to York, Darlington and Newcastle at 8pm

Last direct train to London leaves York at 9.33pm

Christmas Day and Boxing Day there are no GNER services

New Year's Eve, the last direct service from London to York leaves London at 5pm, and the last service from York to London leaves at 5.50pm

On New Year's Day, the first service from London to York departs at 1pm, with regular hourly services thereafter until 10pm. The first train to London from York leaves at 1.27pm, followed by hourly departures until 9.27pm. Direct services to and from Harrogate will not run.

Full details of train times, fares and ticket sales are available from stations and from GNER on 08457 225225.

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