COACH company National Express promised last night to ride to the rescue of rail passengers facing a nightmare Christmas trip to the North-East.

Bosses said they would be laying on scores of extra services to cope with the expected Christmas rush.

Continuing problems with the East Coast main line have left thousands of travellers looking for a different way to get home.

A spokesman for National Express said: "We're expecting our busiest Christmas ever.

"Passenger numbers are already up as people switch to a coach rather than take a chance on the trains. We'll be laying on extra services to make sure no one is disappointed."

Meanwhile there was little relief in view for rail passengers as chaos continued to grip the network.

Passengers were warned that problems could drag on until March and urged to book journeys over Christmas now to avoid missing out on a limited number of trains.

A new report also slammed "inaccurate and inconsistent information" on fares, from the national telephone inquiry system.

Staff from the National Rail Enquiry Service (NRES) were telephoned four times by Reader's Digest magazine and were said to have supplied incorrect ticket details.

Christmas timetables were published by train companies, although only limited information was available from East Coast main line operator GNER, which expects to have its timetable available next Monday.

It will be running no more than three trains an hour between London, the North-East and Scotland over Christmas.

George Muir, director general of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said a "tail" of difficulties would remain beyond January.

He said: "Half the network is working largely normally. The converse is that 10,000 trains are running not to the normal timetable, and late.

"I think this tail will stretch from February into March," said Mr Muir.

People considering travelling by train over Christmas and the New Year should book now with overcrowding expected on the limited trains available.

A spokesman for the York based Rail Passengers Committee, the train operators watchdog, said: "Our advice is that if you have to travel over the holiday period start booking now and get what ticket you can.