Travel chaos is continuing across Britain.
Tens of thousands of travellers are waking up where they did not intend to be, after Storm Gerrit and technical failures plagued the rail network from the far north of Scotland to the south coast of England.
As Thursday morning dawned, London Paddington station reopened after a four-day closure for engineering work. The terminus is the hub for intercity services to and from South Wales and the West of England.
But within two hours all services had been suspended due to a fatality west of the station.
Great Western Railway said: “Due to the emergency services dealing with an incident between London Paddington and Reading all lines are blocked.
“Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 11am.”
Passengers are being advised to use the South Western Railway link from London Waterloo to Reading, where some intercity trains are operating. Travellers to and from Oxford can use Chiltern Railway trains serving London Marylebone.
The worst impact of Storm Gerrit will continue to be felt in Scotland on Thursday. On Wednesday, lines north of Perth and Dundee were closed because of extreme weather.
ScotRail says: “Safety checks are required on each of the closed routes in daylight.”
The affected lines are: Aberdeen-Dundee; Inverness-Perth; Aberdeen-Inverness; West Highland lines from Glasgow to Oban, Fort William and Mallaig; Inverness-Kyle of Lochalsh; and Inverness-Wick.
With sunrise on Thursday in Inverness not until 8.59am, passenger trains are not likely to run until later in the morning.
The closures are also affecting some CrossCountry and LNER trains.
Staff shortage has led to the cancellation or curtailment of more than a dozen LNER trains on the East Coast main line, which connects London King’s Cross with Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland.
Disruption is continuing in the Midland main line north of London St Pancras International due to continuing problems with a newly installed signalling system. Thameslink trains between Bedford, Luton, central London, Gatwick airport and Brighton are still disrupted.
There are dozens of cancellations on Transport for Wales, mainly through mid-Wales and on the link from Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Ferry services continue to be disrupted. In Scotland, Caledonian MacBrayne has already made some cancellations for today, including the 7am from Ardrossan to the Isle of Arran. Travellers on many of its routes in the Western Isles are warned of “disruption or cancellation at short notice”.
Northlink, which connects mainland Scotland with Orkney and Shetland, is warning of continued disruption on Thursday after all sailings on Wednesday were cancelled.
Between Dover and France, DFDS Ferries is telling passengers: “All services are currently operating with delays due to strong winds in the Channel. Please check-in as normal, we will transfer all passengers onto the first available sailing on arrival.”
The UK’s only passenger hovercraft, from Southsea in Hampshire to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, is expecting “weather cancellations” from 5.45am. Tickets will be accepted on the Fastcat link from Ryde to Portsmouth.
In the skies, British Airways has cancelled 20 flights to and from London Heathrow airport on Thursday due to the impact of Storm Gerrit.
Six serve domestic destinations: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester
The remainder are in Continental Europe: Copenhagen, Geneva, Hamburg, Lisbon, Paris CDG, Prague and Zurich.
A spokesperson for the airline said: “As a result of continued air-traffic control restrictions put in place because of Storm Gerrit, we have had to make some adjustments to our schedule.
“We have apologised to our customers for any disruption to their travel plans and our teams are working hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible.”
Conversely, Loganair is putting on extra flights around its Scottish network to help the many passengers whose trips on Wednesday were cancelled.
