ANYONE looking forward to a night out in London tonight is in for frustrating delays as buses will be replacing trains to and from St Albans.

First Capital Connect says trains from Bedford to St Pancras via St Albans will be replaced by buses after 11pm and north-bound services will be affected after 10pm, as many drivers have refused to work on their rest day.

A spokeswoman for the train operator said:  “There is no industrial action – this is due to a combination of factors. Train companies do rely on drivers being willing to work on their rest days and we can't make them work. It is half term, and the weather is good.

”At the present time, while we continue to train drivers for our new trains, we rely on drivers to work an element of overtime and rest days. A combination of factors has meant that we have not had adequate driver availability and this had led to a significant number of cancellations this week.

"We have been working hard to ensure we operate with as little disruption as possible and apologise for any inconvenience caused. We are monitoring this situation very closely to limit disruption and ensure we can provide the best possible timetable for our customers on each day.

"The website is regularly updated and customers are advised to check this for further information."

Lib Dem candidate for St Albans Sandy Walkington said: “It’s not just a much longer journey, there must be real questions as to whether they can physically move all the passengers affected.

"It seems as though drivers from the Brighton and Blackfriars depots will be refusing to work on their rest days next week, so it looks like more days of misery for St Albans commuters.

“Clearly there is a dispute over pay, and the drivers are leveraging the fact that FCC don’t employ enough of them and so depend on their working on their rest days – which of course is voluntary.”