Trains, planes and roads thrown into chaos across UK by Storm Goretti

Roads and public transport services are in disarray after much of the UK was blanketed in the heaviest snowfall in years, with some areas struck by ‘dangerously’ high winds.

Storm Goretti has inflicted train cancellations across the country, with bus routes and motorways disrupted and two major airports forced to suspend a number of flights.

The Midlands, Wales and coastal areas in the South-West are especially severely affected, though services have been axed in other regions and further issues are expected to crop up throughout the day.

Here’s a round-up of the major transport disruptions announced so far today:

Train disruption

West Midlands Railway has suspended all services and says none will resume ‘until the afternoon’.

Rail replacement buses will not be provided due to ‘uncertain road conditions’, the operator added.

London Northwestern Railway (LNR) has suspended services between Birmingham New Street and Liverpool Lime Street and reduced the services from Birmingham New Street to London Euston.

This will remain in place until Friday afternoon, the operator said.

Rail services connecting Manchester and Sheffield have been axed, including via New Mills, due to the storm’s impact on the Peak District.

A number of smaller Northern Rail services connecting Greater Manchester and the Peak District will not run in higher areas, such as from Hazel Grove to Buxton.

No bus replacement services will be staged, and Transpennine Express, one of the operators on the Manchester-Sheffield line, has said the route will stay closed until at least midnight.

Great Western Railway has also announced a number of closures along its lines in the South-West.

No trains are running between Plymouth and Penzance or Gunnislake, Exeter to Okehampton or Barnstaple, Hereford to Worcester Shrub Hill, Truro and Falmouth, Newquay and Par.

They are not expected to resume until at least midday and no bus replacement services will be run.

Chiltern Railways will not run any services north of Birmingham Moor Street or on the line to Stratford-upon-Avon, and the rest of its network is at half-capacity.

National Rail has warned that services across England, Wales and Scotland are at risk of further disruption until the end of the day.

Road closures

The Met Office has urged drivers to take extra precautions before setting off in the Midlands, North and Scotland as part of yellow weather warnings for snow.

All but one lanes on the M1 are closed in the northbound direction following a lorry crash between junctions 28 and 29 in Derbyshire.

They will take longer than usual to reopen as snow which settled on the closed routes must be cleared by specialist vehicles.

The A30 in Cornwall is closed between Longrock and St Erth due to a ‘large number’ of fallen trees, National Highways said.

Road safety experts at the AA are urging drivers to ‘approach every journey with heightened caution’ throughout the day.

‘Roads that are normally straightforward may not be treated, and drifting snow can cause unpredictable patches of ice’, it warned, adding that roads are more dangerous than usual in all the following regions:

East Midlands – Derby; Derbyshire; Leicester; Leicestershire; Lincolnshire; Northamptonshire; Nottingham; Nottinghamshire; Rutland

East of England – Bedford; Cambridgeshire; Central Bedfordshire; Hertfordshire; Luton; Peterborough

London & South East – Buckinghamshire; Milton Keynes; Oxfordshire; West Berkshire

North West England – Cheshire East

South West England – Bath and North East Somerset; Bristol; Gloucestershire; North Somerset; Somerset; South Gloucestershire; Swindon; Wiltshire

Wales – Blaenau Gwent; Bridgend; Caerphilly; Cardiff; Carmarthenshire; Ceredigion; Conwy; Denbighshire; Flintshire; Gwynedd; Merthyr Tydfil; Monmouthshire; Neath Port Talbot; Newport; Powys; Rhondda Cynon Taf; Swansea; Torfaen; Vale of Glamorgan; Wrexham

West Midlands – Herefordshire; Shropshire; Staffordshire; Stoke-on-Trent; Telford and Wrekin; Warwickshire; West Midlands Conurbation; Worcestershire

Yorkshire & Humber – South Yorkshire

Flight cancellations

More than 50 flights due to come in and out of London Heathrow today have been cancelled.

All were operated by British Airways and the majority are short-haul routes.

All early-morning flights in and out of Birmingham Airport were cancelled after its runways were closed for hours this morning.

Services are now resuming but passengers on other flights face major delays.

‘Our runway has reopened on a reduced basis, and our teams are working to get passengers away as efficiently as possible’, bosses said in an update.

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