RAIL firms have been accused of failing to do enough to help passengers facing severe disruption because of East Coast Main Line engineering work.

Network Rail is carrying out major work over the next two weekends -on March 12, 13, 19 and 20, at a number of locations in County Durham to renew almost 4,000 yards of track.

The repair work at Aycliffe, Plawsworth, Burnigill, Ferryhill South and Red Hills Cutting, near Durham, got under way last weekend.

They led one train operator, First TransPennine Express, to terminate services on the affected weekends between York and Newcastle and replace them with buses.

Such a move, however, has baffled Brian Milnes, the chairman of the Tees Valley branch of Transport 2000, who said: "When the majority of the engineering work is taking place between Darlington and Ferryhill, why can they not run trains to Darlington and then bus people from there?

"The train companies should be in the business of running trains whenever they can. Buses are not an acceptable substitute for trains, and while the work has to be done, this sort of disruption was never caused in the past with the old British Rail."

A spokesman for First TransPennine Express said it was unable to run trains to Darlington and was terminating at York because the size of Darlington station meant all space was taken up by GNER trains and that it would be impossible to turn its trains round.

GNER is also running a replacement bus service between Darlington and Newcastle over the next two weekends.

Engineering work is also planned north of York from 12.15pm on Saturday, March 26, until 6.30am on the Monday. Passengers are advised to check with their operator before they travel. Some replacement bus services will again be running.