BBC News York & North Yorkshire

Leeds was Yorkshire's busiest railway station despite the number of passengers falling an average of 78% in the UK due to the Covid pandemic.

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Lockdowns and restrictions throughout the year meant more people worked from home and did not commute as much.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said despite an 81% reduction, Leeds railway station remained the most used across Yorkshire between March 2020 and April 2021.

The city's station had 5.8 million passenger entries and exits.

Sheffield recorded 1.9 million with York registering 1.8 million.

Overall, the pandemic brought the lowest level of rail journeys in the country since before 1872.

Feras Alshaker, of ORR, said: "We know that recent figures show leisure journeys are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels and there is a slower increase in commuter journeys.”

Storm Arwen is expected to bring severe wind and storm conditions to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire later today and over the weekend.

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The Met Office has issued an amber warning for parts of Yorkshire and a yellow warning for parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

Amber means it is likely that bad weather will affect people, possibly including travel delays, road and rail closures and power cuts.

A yellow warning means means the weather is likely to have some impact, for example travel disruption.

There are warnings of winds of 65 to 75mph - particularly in coastal areas - from 15:00, which is likely to cause travel disruption.

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The Met Office warns that:

• Injuries and danger to life from flying debris are possible
• Some damage to trees, temporary structures and buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs, could happen
• Road, rail, air and ferry services may be affected, with longer journey times and cancellations possible
• Some roads and bridges may close
• Power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage
• Injuries and danger to life could occur from large waves and beach material being thrown onto sea fronts, coastal roads and properties.

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has warned people to secure large items like trampolines, tables and seating.

The normal train timetable between Hull and Scarborough should be restored next May, according to Northern Rail.

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Northern said it made the decision to cut back services because of a driver shortages caused by the pandemic and de-prioritised leisure routes to cope with demand for commuter trains between Hull and places like York, Sheffield and Leeds.

The operator has now told the Beverley and Holderness MP, Graham Stuart, that a backlog in training new drivers should be cleared soon and a full timetable will be reintroduced in 2022.

Pete Myers, stakeholder manager at Northern Rail, says 'It was a pleasure to meet with Graham to reassure him that our services will be returning to normal next year.

'We're also putting money into improving Beverley train station, we’re making the station at Bridlington more accessible with new lifts and putting significant investment into the engineering depot at Hull.”

North Yorkshire's newly elected Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) is expected to be announced today.

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A PFCC is not a serving member of the local force but they are voted for by the public, to hold the police forces and fire services to account.

Voting took place yesterday to replace Philip Allott (pictured), who resigned after his comments about the murder of Sarah Everard, who was from York, led to a vote of no confidence by the county's crime panel.

Mr Allott had been in post for five months when he resigned.

Voter turnout figures for today's election have been released.

• Craven: 15.36%
• Hambleton: 15.28%
• Harrogate: 15.56%
• Richmondshire: 13.38%
• Ryedale: 13.38%
• Scarborough: 12.24%
• Selby: 13.88%
• York: 12.74%

Five candidates stood in the election.

The new PFCC is expected to be announced this afternoon.

This morning will be very breezy with a mix of sunshine and showers.

This afternoon will turn largely dry and fine, but it will remain quite windy with strong gusts in places.

Tonight winds will become very strong from the north reaching gale or even storm force in places:

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