Coronavirus travel guidance

Yes, trains are still running. If you do travel, travel with confidence.

For the latest government travel advice in England advice click here. For advice in Scotland click here.

• Hands: Our stations and trains have toilets to regularly wash your hands
• Face: You must wear a face covering, unless you are exempt
• Space: To keep you safe onboard, you must have a seat reservation which will be automatically socially distanced.

Read the full Coronavirus travel advice

If you are feeling unwell or live with someone who does, you can use the NHS track and trace app to check if you have symptoms of coronavirus.

If you do feel unwell with any of these symptoms then you should stay at home and isolate for 14 days, avoiding public transport:

• new continuous cough
• a high temperature
• A loss or change in your sense of smell or taste.

You can find more information about self-isolating on the NHS website.

We take your safety very seriously. That's why we've introduced some new measures to make travelling with us safe for you.

If you do travel, travel with confidence. Our Covid Aware safe travel pledge means you can book and travel with confidence.

We know that travelling on long journeys can be overwhelming. We have:

• Made our ticket change policy flexible
• Increased our onboard and station cleaning
• Introduced reservation-only travel so that each customer has a socially distanced seat.

Our safe travel pledge

Advance tickets are not refundable. However, if you are still planning to travel between the same two stations but on a different time or day, you can rebook that journey and get a refund for the original journey. There is an industry-wide £10 admin fee for this.

Anytime and Off-Peak tickets are always refundable. You can follow the steps in the next section to apply for a refund for these kinds of tickets. An industry-standard £10 admin fee will apply. Refunds for Anytime and Off-Peak tickets can be applied for up to 28 days from when the ticket expires.

In some circumstances relating to COVID-19, the £10 admin fee can be waived.

If you're a Season Ticket holder click here to find out how to get a refund.

Refunds and change of journey

We are reintroducing ticket checks onboard. Before travelling please ensure you have a valid ticket for the train you are on as well as a seat reservation.

If you've bought a flexible ticket (i.e. Off-Peak or flexible return) and the train you're trying to make a seat reservation for is full, please consider changing your journey time.

If you're at the station and you don't have a seat reservation you must make one before you board. We recommend doing this as soon as possible before you set off to guarantee the time of train you want to travel on.

We're ensuring all customers can travel safely and sit socially distanced when onboard.

Make a seat reservation 

You are able to temporarily remove your face covering to consume food or drink on board our train, providing you are socially distanced from other passengers. Your face covering should be put back on after. We have reintroduced limited catering back on our trains, find out more here. 

You should continue to maintain your distance from other passengers. Some people may be exempt from wearing a face covering on public transport. For exemptions in England click here, and exemptions in Scotland click here.

To support social distancing and to  ensure a safe number of customers can travel on each of our trains, we are asking customers to purchase a ticket in advance of travel if possible and have reservation-only travel in place. Find out more about seat reservations here.

Our station Travel Centres are open. Please check the various opening times here.

Yes, if you require assistance for your journey you can book Passenger Assist when you're booking your ticket with LNER.

Alternatively, you can book assistance here. All assistance requests must be made at least 6 hours before your time of travel. Where your journey takes place in a morning, we recommended booking by 22:00 the day before travel.

All our seats are socially distanced but some trains will still be busier than others. Where possible you should travel when our trains are quieter, midweek Monday to Thursday, and avoid busy travel times. Use our tool to check for quieter trains. 

Check for quieter trains

Our station toilets are open for you to wash your hands regularly when travelling.

Each of our trains has toilets with soap, running water and hand dryers so you can travel safely and wash your hands on the go.

Face coverings on public transport is mandatory in England and Scotland unless exempt. Otherwise you could be fined £200. 

• Please wear your face covering in stations and onboard our trains, unless you are exempt
• The face covering could be a scarf or other form of material that could catch droplets coming from the mouth or nose
•  For exemptions in England click here, and exemptions in Scotland click here
• The £200 fine is for the first offence, the fine will then double for each additional offence up to a maximum of £6400.

Everyone travelling on our trains is allocated a socially distanced seat. Whilst onboard our trains and in stations, face coverings must be worn unless you are exempt. Otherwise you could be fined £200.

It is important that you sit in your designated coach and seat number shown on your ticket or reservation confirmation email.

If you have a ticket but need a seat reservation you can make one quickly and easily online using our seat reservation tool.

If you’re booked to travel on an LNER train that has been cancelled or changed, your ticket will be valid for travel on the next available LNER train to your destination.

You will need to make a new seat reservation for the next train you'd like to travel on. You can do this for free online or in station Travel Centres.

Alternatively, if you choose not to travel, then you will be entitled to a full refund or credit without any admin charge.