The upcoming Christmas travel window has concerned Jesmond residents who take trains – and who are expecting the return of families and loved ones from other parts of the country.

LNER has urged customers to arrange Christmas travel plans as early as possible, with all trains requiring a reservation or running the risk of being denied boarding.

But despite this, residents are worried about the impact of mass movement this winter.

Drew Gibson, 36, a photographer, is concerned about what could happen. “Personally I cannot see how trains can accommodate passengers and abide by the government guidelines of social distancing,” he said.

“Trains – particularly at Christmastime – are very busy anyway, but I can only see these services becoming even more crowded as the government have restricted the dates people are allowed to travel.”

Gibson did echo the sentiment LNER had about limiting access to trains to a specific number of ticketed passengers.

“I think the only way to prevent crowded trains, that could aid the spread of the Covid-19 virus,” Gibson said, “is to sell a very limited number of tickets per train, and only allow ticketed passengers on the trains.”

That will be more difficult by scheduled engineering works on the East Coast Main Line, which will cut down the number of trains further.

When these works arecompleted, LNER says it will be able to run more trains from the north east to London and Scotland quicker and more reliably.

An LNER spokesperson told JesmondLocal: “We fully recognise that the disruption to deliver the East Coast Upgrade will cause disappointment for some of our customers this Christmas. Network Rail requires extensive access to the railway in order to deliver this incredibly complex programme to upgrade and improve services on the East Coast route.”

The spokesperson added: “We are increasing services from early December up until the planned disruption begins on December 24th and are continuing to operate reservation only services to prevent overcrowding. We urge customers to plan ahead this Christmas to avoid disappointment.”

A spokesperson at Trainline also spoke to JesmondLocal about how they are accomodating for their users this Christmastime. “We appreciate that organising travel for the Christmas period is more difficult this year and our top priority is providing our customers with the best possible support. In line with the rail industry’s guidance, we advise our customers to book early and to ensure they have a seat reservation.”

Customers with Trainline can purchase tickets from the app or the Trainline website. Times and dates on Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year travel times can be found here.

Jesmond resident Andrea Woodward, 50, a cashier at Tesco, who gets trains frequently in Newcastle, on how this would affect her. “I can only speak for the Metro where it’s overcrowded due to the new timetable […] they should enforce the mask-wearing rules by stopping people getting on and off without them, making sure there is enough room for people to socially distance.”