Storm Éowyn is, by all accounts, going to be quite a big one. It began early today (Friday, January 24) with winds reaching as fast as 100mph – you can learn more about the storm itself and various weather warnings here.
As always, weather this grim is going to be disruptive to our day-to-day lives, and the Met Office has issued warnings that power lines may go down, and that, ‘injuries and danger to life could occur from flying debris’.
In light of these forecasts, airports and train lines throughout the UK have pulled the plug on countless services over the weekend. Basically, if you can work from home tomorrow (January 24), it’s probably best that you do – especially because there’s a small chance that the internet access will be partly cut, and your weekend will start early. Every storm has its silver linings.
Here’s all the info you need on travel disruption and cancellations across the UK this weekend.
Train disruption caused by Storm Éowyn
In Scotland, all ScotRail services have been called of for Friday, with no alternative transport available. It said ‘once the warnings pass, the network will have to undergo safety inspections before services can be reintroduced. Please check the ScotRail website or app before travelling on Saturday morning.’
In England, Network Rail has closed the West Coast main line north of Preston and the East Coast main line north of Newcastle.
LNER has cautioned against travelling north of York, and Transpennine Express expects delays and cancellations across all of its inter-country services. Avanti West Coast is also 'advising customers not to travel north of Preston or on our North Wales route', tomorrow.
‘Do not travel’ warnings have been issued by Northern Rail, with no rail replacment buses available, for the following following services:
- Oxenholme to Windermere (Windermere branch)
- Barrow-Carlisle (Cumbrian Coast)
- Settle-Carlisle
- Barrow/Windermere – Manchester Airport
- Carlisle – Barrow/Lancaster
- Morecambe Heysham Port – Lancaster
- Blackpool North – York (from Bradford to Blackpool)
- Wigan – Leeds
- Manchester Victoria – Leeds
- Huddersfield – Sheffield (Penistone Line )
- Hebden Bridge – Halifax (Calder Valley)
- Leeds – Nottingham
- Newcastle – Carlisle
- Ashington – Newcastle (Northumberland line)
- Newcastle – Edinburgh
And passengers are ‘strongly advised’ to avoid travelling on the following journeys, as they will be severely disrupted:
- Leeds-Lincoln (will operate Sheffield-Lincoln only)
- Sheffield-Scarborough (will operate Hull-Scarborough only)
- York-Bridlington (will operate Hull-Bridlington only)
- Leeds-Knottingley
- York-Blackpool North (will operate Bradford Interchange-York only)
- Leeds-Harrogate
- Leeds-Chester (will operate between Chester and Manchester Victoria only)
As well as the services which they have already cancelled or part-cancelled, Northern have also alerted travellers that ‘trains may be cancelled at very short notice with onward connection not possible’, and that you should ‘try not to rely on the last services of the day as they may be cancelled, and bad weather may restrict road transport’.
Transport for Wales has announced that no services are running on the Conwy Valley line or Heart of Wales line on Friday and there are speed restrictions in place across other parts of the country. It advises passengers to keep an eye on updates across the whole weekend.
Airports and air travel cancellations
More than 300 flights are cancelled across the UK today and across the weekend, mostly domestic or between the UK and Ireland.
At Edinburgh Airport there are around 90 cancellations so far, in Glasgow 66 have been axed and British Airways has scrapped almost 100 domestic flights linking Scotland and Northern Ireland with London Heathrow and London City.
Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol airports have all called off a number of flights to Belfast and Dublin. There are no services taking off between Standsted or Gatwick and Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow or the Isle of Man either.
You can track the status of your flight over on airline or airport websites.
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