RACEGOERS coming to York for the Ebor meeting today were being warned not to miss the last train home as another strike by Arriva staff threatened to leave hundreds stranded in the city.

Station staff, police and taxi drivers were bracing themselves for unhappy train passengers this evening, stuck in York for hours due to cancelled services.

As a result of the strike by RMT members, the last Arriva service to Leeds was due to leave at 6.30pm.

Arriva said it had advertised today's train times in the race card, would be displaying posters at York station and had arranged announcements at the races.

The company's last replacement bus service to Darlington and Middlesbrough was at 6.55pm and the last Arriva service to Hull was due to leave at 4.12pm.

Sergeant Tracy Metcalf, of the British Transport Police in York, said they had already arranged to have extra staff working today because of the Ebor races and urged racegoers to catch the last Arriva services on time.

She said: "I would advise people to check they can get back before they get here. There will still be GNER services so people will be able to get back to Leeds via Doncaster but nowhere near as many as there would be normally.

"Many people may come and turn up expecting a train at a certain time and they will have to wait an hour or an hour and a half.

"It could be the case that there will be so many people that there will be a lot of people on the trains that are running."

John Wallis, treasurer of the Station Taxis Association, said: "It's always bedlam on Ebor Day. It stretches the public transport system anyway, this certainly isn't going to improve things.

"I would hope that people are aware of this. Arriva should be making passengers aware when they come here in the morning."

A spokeswoman for Arriva said that in previous strikes, the last train for Leeds had left at 5.19pm, but this time it was 6.30pm as the last race was at 5.20pm.

Dave Mallender, spokesman for GNER, which runs York station, said: "We're encouraging people to make their travel plans to get the 6.30pm for Leeds. We're advising people to make arrangements."

Updated: 11:37 Wednesday, August 21, 2002