UK weather causes transport chaos

Rail and ferry services were badly hit by Britain's extreme windy weather today.

Passengers on a Glasgow-to-London train got stuck at Castlethorpe in Buckinghamshire because of an overhead-wire problem on the West Coast Main Line.

This affected services run by the Virgin Trains and Silverlink rail companies, with around a dozen trains having to be halted.

The difficulties meant that there were no services between Milton Keynes and Northampton, with buses being used to take passengers between the two points.

A Network Rail (NR) spokeswoman said: “All the passengers have been taken off the affected trains and taken on to their destinations.”

Another signalling problem at the Severn Tunnel junction affected London-to-south Wales services run by Arriva Trains Wales, Central Trains, First Great Western and Virgin Trains.

By mid-afternoon, delays of up to an hour were still being experienced on services between London and Cardiff, via Bristol, Gloucester and Swindon.

Arriva Trains Wales’ services were also hit by flooding between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth and Pwllheli in Wales. This affected services from Birmingham to Wales.

Earlier, signalling problems affected East Coast Main Line services between Newark North Gate and Doncaster, while South West Trains’ passengers had to contend with flooding, which hit services between Eastleigh and Fareham in Hampshire.

Difficulties in docking meant that some P&O Ferries’ services between Dover and Calais had to be cancelled.

Another Dover-to-Calais ferry operator, SeaFrance, also faced French industrial action, while the fast catamaran Dover-Boulogne services operated by SpeedFerries were unable to operate.