Thousands of commuters and rail passengers faced widespread cancellations today.
One in 10 rail workers was off work on the first working day of the year because of the pandemic.
Train companies including ScotRail, CrossCountry and LNER announced reduced timetables and commuters have been warned of more disruption to come.
Alex Hynes, managing director of ScotRail, said the company had “hundreds” of staff absent.
The company usually operates 2,000 services a day but that was reduced by 160 from Tuesday.
Record numbers of Covid cases meant they were “cancelling too many trains”. He hoped that a revised timetable would give customers “greater certainty”. He added: “We’d be foolish to predict the future.”
CrossCountry said one in 10 staff were now absent and the situation was getting worse every day.
The Rail Delivery Group estimated more than 6,000 crews and drivers could not go back to work on Monday.
South Western Railway warned of “short notice cancellations” ahead of a “consolidated timetable” from January 17.
LNER cancelled 16 trains for this week, with potential “non-planned changes”. Southern is not putting on any direct services to London Victoria – a major commuter station – until Monday.
A points failure at Lewisham, South East London, caused disruption to Southeastern services today.
Rail travel is at around 50% of pre-pandemic levels. Rail Minister Wendy Morton said she would “continue to monitor the situation closely”.
