YORK motorists should watch out for delays from today as last-minute Christmas shopping sees drivers taking to the roads.

Breakdown service Green Flag was predicting that York's roads would be at their busiest over the next 48 hours as people took a late opportunity to stock up on festive gifts.

The prediction came as rail companies warned passengers they would face some delays when travelling north and south over the Christmas period.

Network Rail is warning that some GNER and Virgin trains will be affected because of track repair work between Newcastle and Edinburgh and engineering work around Peterborough.

On Christmas Eve and Bank Holiday Monday, trains to Scotland will be diverted through Carlisle because of the repair work. A bus service will be provided for those needing to travel to Alnmouth or Berwick-upon-Tweed. Journeys will be an hour-and-a-half longer.

London-bound travellers on GNER services on Monday will have to take a bus between Grantham and Sandy adding about an hour to journeys.

Network Rail said it regretted the inconvenience to Christmas travellers, but said the work needed to be done. Green Flag said, nationally, it expected to attend more than 60,000 breakdowns over the next fortnight, of which it expects to be called out to 10,000 breakdowns today alone.

Nigel Charlesworth, Green Flag spokesman, said: "If weather conditions do worsen over Christmas, out advice to motorists is to give yourself plenty of time to travel to your destination, carry out a check over the vehicle before setting off, keep a mobile phone to hand in case of emergencies and make sure you are with a breakdown service that can get to you fast."

A GNER spokesman said: "GNER will be operating revised timetables from December 23 to January 3 inclusive. GNER's service throughout the holiday period will be varied to reflect differing predicted demand, but also responds to major investment works which are taking place between Berwick and Edinburgh between December 24 and 27 and in the Peterborough area on December 27.

City of York Council chiefs said while the roads may be busy, the city had probably already seen its busiest day during last month's St Nicholas Fayre weekend.

"There will be no special measures," a spokesman said. "Park&Ride services are running through until Christmas and we normally find our busiest time is that last weekend in November."

Updated: 08:42 Tuesday, December 21, 2004