PEOPLE affected by industrial action at train operator Northern this weekend will benefit from arrangements put in place by other operators.

Arriva Trains Wales, East Midlands Trains, and Cross Country have agreed to add extra stops to some of their timetabled services, calling at stations usually served by Northern.

The additional stops will benefit people planning to travel around the north of England this weekend.

Workers at Northern are taking part in industrial action from Saturday, July 8, to Monday, July 10.

Arriva Trains Wales services between Manchester Piccadilly and Shrewsbury will now additionally call at Sandbach, Holmes Chapel, and Alderley Edge, and on Monday the Manchester to Chester line will call into Patricroft.

Some East Midlands Trains services between Liverpool and Norwich will make extra stops at Dronfield, Langley Mill, Ilkeston, Dore, Chinley, and Hazel Grove.

Cross Country trains between Newcastle and Edinburgh will call at Morpeth on Saturday and Monday, and Tyne and Wear Metro will accept Northern tickets between Sunderland and Newcastle.

Sharon Keith, regional director for Northern, said: “As a result of industrial action we are running a revised timetable and, as such, we will not be able to run services to all stations.

“We have worked hard to organise ticket acceptance on other train operators and are grateful to Arriva Trains Wales, East Midlands Trains and Cross Country for agreeing to add extra stops to their timetables to help our customers.”

On Saturday and Monday, the majority of Northern services will run between 7am and 7pm, though they will start winding down from late afternoon. On Sunday, most services will run between 9am and 5pm.”

Rail replacement buses will also be used to supplement the rail services and Northern tickets will be accepted on Arriva buses, including Yorkshire Tiger.

For full details of timetables, including rail replacement bus services and ticket acceptance, visit northernrailway.co.uk/industrialaction