Rail travellers from and to Gloucestershire hoping to be calmly riding home for Christmas face their plans hitting the buffers amid an ongoing debacle of crew shortages.

The usual mass exodus by rail which sees the network's heaviest demand in the calendar will be the first since train drivers negotiated a bumper £9,000 pay rise this summer.

With average salaries at £69,000, the pay rise, backdated to 2022, has been determined as the chief reason for operators now struggling to ensure adequate crew provision keep their stock rolling.

The deal came with a no-strings commitment for new working conditions and, given the subsequent removal of extra-pay temptation for drivers on rest days, it exposed an inherent under-provision of drivers, leaving operators like Great Western Railways struggling to maintain weekend timetables and being forced to make widespread cancellations.

Amid Storm Darragh, services to and from Gloucester were particularly hit last weekend, with one rail user contacting Punchline-Gloucester.com to say that their journey from the city to Glasgow, which normally took five hours, ended up as a nine-hour ordeal.

The Times newspaper has reported that GWR's service between London and the South West and onto Wales, has been "hit particularly badly" and passenger groups are warning that the problem will not be solved any time soon.

On Wednesday this week, Lord Hendy, the Rail Minister, accepted Christmas train services could be disrupted but said Department for Transport officials would monitor the issue.

Lord Hendy said: "Generally, as a system, we're overreliant on overtime working for train crew. That's a risk, which may be worse at Christmas time than other times."

Aslef, the train drivers' union, has meanwhile rejected the idea that drivers were withdrawing their services because they felt little financial leverage in the wake of their successful pay deal.

A spokesman said: "If [the operators] had enough drivers and didn't rely on rest-day working, this wouldn't happen. If a driver is contracted to work, they do. If they are not, they can decide to take extra shifts. It's as simple as that."

Meanwhile a new timetable from GWR becomes operational from this Sunday and the operator is advising passengers to note the changes on South West routes, while those travelling into South Wales are also being cautioned to pay particular attention.

Due to major timetable edits from Transport for Wales, the operator said it has had to make a significant number of amendments to its services in South Wales. Most are minor, but some services arriving into Cardiff have been retimed by up to 11 minutes. If you intend to travel, you are told by GWR to double check your journey to avoid being caught out and having to wait for the next train.

However, the good news for travellers to and from Gloucestershire and Great Malvern is that there will be an increased number of carriages on selected early Sunday morning trains.

GWR said: "Nine or ten carriage trains will replace five carriages trains, effectively doubling the number of seats available on some services from Cheltenham to London Paddington and from Great Malvern to London Paddington."

A new, direct service between Cheltenham and Bristol, via Stonehouse/Stroud/Kemble/Swindon and Chippenham/Bath/Bristol is also to be introduced on Saturdays at 8.46am The train will provide a direct link from Cheltenham to Chippenham and Bath, while also helping to alleviate demand on the later 8.59am service from Cheltenham to London.

Further small-scale changes have also been promised by the operator to free up more seats on long-distance trains.

● The new Sunday timetable begins from this Sunday and thereafter from Monday December 16 for weekday services. You can check your journey here.