Rail services across the country are being cancelled in the run-up to
Christmas as rising numbers of staff fall ill with Covid.

Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, LNER, Scotrail and West Midlands Railway
have all reported cancellations.

More than 90,000 tested positive for Covid in the UK on Monday, but the
true number is thought to be much higher.

In the past week 5.2% of trains were cancelled, versus an average of 2.9%,
according to the Rail Delivery Group.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59743461

LNER, which runs services on the East Coast main line, is operating an
amended timetable in the week before Christmas because of the number of
absent drivers and train managers. Sixteen services are being cancelled
each day.

The affected routes are between London King’s Cross and Leeds, and London
King’s Cross and Lincoln.

A spokesperson for LNER said services were being reduced “as a result of
an increase in the number of our staff self-isolating due to Covid”. It is
offering customers refunds or fee-free re-booking.

In Scotland, ScotRail reported more than a hundred cancellations on Monday.

Northern, which runs services across the North of England, is also warning
that passenger “services are being affected by the impacts of Covid and
unavailability of train crew”. It said there could be short-notice
cancellations.

South Western Railway said it had only seen a small number of alterations
this week, but was closely monitoring the impact of the new Omicron
variant on staff availability.

However it urged customers to check for late-notice changes, saying “as
cases continue to rise, some short notice alterations may be required
throughout the festive period”.

Govia Thameslink, which operates the Thameslink, Great Northern and
Southern franchises, said it may also have to cancel services at short
notice due to high numbers of staff off sick with Covid and other seasonal
illnesses.

It said staff were also taking time off to receive booster jabs.

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators across the UK,
said its members had reported that 8.7% of their staff were off sick due
to all causes including Covid.

(snip longer list of similar rail services reporting the same problems
nationwide...)

### - iow: just about ALL rail services here are now beginning to shut
down due to staff shortages, with presumably a very similar number/ratio
of people EQUALLY testing positive in just about every other sector of
society too!

so can ya hear the whole thing slowly grinding to a halt or wot?
(creak/groan...)

could easily happen! everyone ALL sick at the same time??

i mean, WHAT services could possibly function under THOSE circumstances
huh...

come what may, 65 million peeps here are still gonna need basic stuff like
food, water, power, gas & medical services innit (enough just on its own
to keep the army more than busy, assuming they're not all sick as well
that is...)

so it looks like there's maybe gonna be a mass-lull here soon then huh....

just how long it's gonna last we dunno?

(plus i dunno who's writin' this damn scrip but it's getting a bit
melodramatic heh...)