Rail disruption to continue until Saturday in wake of Storm Ciaran

Cross-border routes are affected.
Storm Ciaran is the latest bout of severe weather to hit the UK (Gareth Fuller/PA)
PA Wire
Lauren Gilmour2 November 2023

Train passengers in parts of Scotland and on some cross-border services will face delays until Saturday morning due to weather warnings in place as a result of Storm Ciaran, rail operators have announced.

A yellow warning for rain is in place for the east coast, from the Moray coast stretching down to Hull, until 6am on Friday.

In the south of England and Channel Islands on Thursday, the storm brought gusts of more than 100mph in some parts, leaving thousands of homes without power, forcing school closures and causing travel chaos.

Rail operator LNER said no services will run between Edinburgh and Aberdeen until Saturday in both directions.

Its service between Newcastle and Edinburgh will run hourly from 3pm on Thursday until the end of service on Friday.

Speed restrictions will be in place on the route, which may see services subject to delays of up to 40 minutes.

Network Rail is imposing speed restrictions across parts of Scotland and while most ScotRail services will be unaffected, some areas will see delays.

Speed restrictions will be in place on routes between Aberdeen and Inverness; Dundee and Aberdeen; Inverness and Wick; and Perth and Inverness.

ScotRail said the first of these speed restrictions will be in place from 3pm on Thursday and last until 8am on Saturday.

Direct services between Edinburgh and Glasgow to Aberdeen have been cancelled from Friday morning until mid-afternoon, with passengers required to change trains at Dundee.

Services on the Far North Line between Inverness and Wick/Thurso are also disrupted while Network Rail repairs a damaged sea wall impacting the track between Brora and Helmsdale, with work expect to last until early next week.

ScotRail trains are running between Inverness and Lairg, and between Forsinard and Wick, with replacement bus services connecting journeys between Lairg and Forsinard.

David Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, said: “The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for Storm Ciaran, which is expected to bring heavy rain across the east coast of Scotland.

“Our first priority is always to ensure the safety of our staff and customers, so as a precautionary measure, speed restrictions will be in place across the Highlands and east coast. This will result in extended journey times along the affected routes.

“We’re asking customers to check their journey before travel, and to keep an eye on our website, app, or social media feeds for live updates.”

TransPennine Express services between Newcastle and Edinburgh will also be subject to delays, with the operator urging passengers to check their journeys ahead of travel.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency has lifted half of its 12 alerts initially issued and both flood warnings in Dumfries and Galloway and Tayside.

As of 2pm on Thursday, flood warnings remain in place for Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen city, Dundee and Angus, Edinburgh and Lothians, Fife, the Scottish Borders and the area of Findhorn, Nairn, Moray and Speyside.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in