More than half the intercity trains to and from London Paddington have been cancelled on Sunday due to a shortage of crew, leading Great Western Railway (GWR) to urge passengers not to try to travel to or from Cardiff, Bristol, Exeter or Plymouth.

Elsewhere in the UK, many other services have been cancelled because of agreements that staff need not work on Sundays.

Passengers hoping to travel between the capital and South Wales and the West of England are being warned: “Avoid travel unless absolutely necessary. Fewer trains will run, they will be extremely busy, and additional cancellations or delays may occur.”

Most train drivers working for GWR can choose whether or not to work on Sundays.

The rail firm has issued a special appeal to the public not to try to travel to Bath Christmas market by train.

In northwest England, Northern is cancelling hundreds of trains due to staff shortage, with no rail services on the following routes:

Replacement bus services will run.

In addition, many trains are cancelled on other routes, including Barrow-in-Furness to Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadilly to Sheffield.

On the Northern app, almost all services on the latter route are shown as cancelled or “sold out”.

Northern is telling passengers: “Recently, we have seen higher levels of cancellations in the North West and for that we are sorry.

“The underlying reason is train crew availability, in particular on Sundays which is contractually outside of the working week.”

Elsewhere, South Western Railway is warning: “A shortage of train crew is affecting the railway between Weymouth and Southampton Central. “At this time, we estimate that disruption to our services will last until the end of the day.

“Fewer trains are able to run on all lines and your journey is likely to take longer.”

In Scotland, ScotRail is warning: “Unfortunately, due to the availability of drivers on Sunday, there are a number of cancellations to services.

“This is a particularly challenging weekend, and with the Christmas period fast approaching, more drivers than normal are unavailable for rest-day working.

“We’re currently recruiting 160 drivers each year, the most of any UK operator, which will help to reduce the type of challenges we’re currently facing.”

Many Avanti West Coast trains were cancelled on Sunday morning due to overrunning engineering work between Watford Junction and Milton Keynes Central.

While all lines are now open, cancellations continue due to trains and crew being out of position.

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