Passengers furious after LNER sells them tickets for a Leeds to London 'ghost' train that didn't exist

Passengers took to Twitter to complain that the 8.05 service from Leeds to London King's Cross had not turned up at Leeds Station this morning and was not listed on the departures board.

Several people had bought specified tickets for the train via either the LNER website or through booking agent Trainline.

These are the Yorkshire railway stations getting a makeover by Grand CentralThey included NFL fans who had been heading to Wembley Stadium to watch the match between Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars.

LNER responded by blaming Trainline for selling tickets to a service that had been removed due to 'planned cancellations' caused by engineering work at King's Cross.

Yet several passengers hit back by providing evidence that they had booked seats on the 8.05 train directly through LNER, despite the operator saying that they had not been released for sale.

Travellers intending to catch the 'ghost train' were instead told to take a Northern service to Doncaster and change onto another LNER train heading south from York.

A customer travelling in the other direction to Leeds from London was told that trains would start from Finsbury Park instead of King's Cross, but complained about a lack of clear information about the changes.

Northern trains in Yorkshire are even less reliable than a year ago after timetable chaosJames Reed, who was travelling from Leeds to watch the NFL fixture, said:-

"This is why people get annoyed. Mistakes happen but instead of getting an apology they get this. If the services were never released into the system how did a bunch of people buy tickets and then turn up for a service to find it didn’t exist?"

Twitter user and Houston Texans supporter Mr JB added:-

"So LNER tell us our train had a planned cancellation and Trainline shouldn't have sold us the tickets. Problem with that is I bought them directly from the LNER website so not sure why they said that and I want to know what they going to do about it."

Northern confirms future plans for 'relic' Pacer trains after retirementLee Gatherstone commented:-

"Absolute joke. Sold a train full of tickets from Leeds to London only to be told there isn't a service. No warnings, no-one fronting up. Going to be pushed to get to the NFL in time...utter shambles."

LNER said in a Twitter statement:-

"These services were never released into the system due to major engineering work taking place at King's Cross Station. We are sorry about any inconvenience that this has caused."