THE BIG freeze continued to delay trains on many National Rail lines today, although some operators were able to provide a near-normal service. ATOC said, at 13.00, that 93 per cent of scheduled trains had run. 62 per cent were on time and 31 per cent arrived late. The cancellation rate of 7 per cent is significantly lower than Thursday's figure of 11 per cent.

ATOC also said National Rail Enquiries had received 1.6 million requests for information yesterday, with many of those calls going to its new recorded information service,  08453 017641.

Some of the worst problems are now in south-east England, but signal failures are delaying trains on both the East and West Coast Main Lines (scroll down for map below).

One of the worst of these is at Birmingham New Street, where delays of up to 120mins are being reported on Virgin, CrossCountry and London Midland. West Coast services are being further delayed by another signalling failure at Preston, while on the East Coast Main Line problems persist at Huntingdon where again there are signalling problems, affecting East Coast, Hull Trains, First Capital Connect and Grand Central. Operators are also reporting delays on the southern section of the ECML because of emergency speed restrictions.

South West Trains, Southern and Southeastern are all running fewer trains than usual, although Southern seems to be the least affected of the three. Southeastern is warning that its services will end earlier than usual tonight, and South West Trains has cancelled services on several routes. First Capital Connect had already been running a reduced timetable because of its long running drivers' dispute, but even this has been cut back again, with only a skeleton service running between Bedford and London and no FCC trains at all on the Wimbledon/Sutton loop.

Further north, there are no Northern trains between Newcastle and Morpeth, and poor road conditions mean replacement buses are unlikely. Northern is reporting delays in the Manchester area and also through Preston, because of the signalling problem there.

There are no First Transpennine Express services between Manchester Airport and Newcastle.

No ScotRail services are running between Milngavie and High Street (Glasgow)/Bellgrove, Edinburgh and Glasgow Central via Carstairs, or between Inverness and Aberdeen. Again, poor road conditions mean that passengers are being advised not to attempt to travel on this route.

First Great Western intercity services are near normal, although the frequency between Cardiff and London is reduced. There are a number of changes to suburban services today, with a special hourly service between Bedwyn and Reading, calling at all stations. As yesterday, there are no trains between Avonmouth and Severn Beach, or between Westbury and Swindon.

Eurostar is still running a limited service after yesterday's train failure in the Channel Tunnel, and is asking passengers not to travel unless they must. Normal international services are not expected to return before Monday.

Situation report at 14.00 on 8 January

1. Earlier diversions because of rockfall in Wickwar Tunnel and freight train derailment at Yate now reported CLEARED.
2. Major signal failure Birmingham New Street: delays up to 120mins.
3. Signalling problems, Huntingdon. Also speed restrictions on ECML.
4. No trains Inverness-Perth. Replacement buses running Inverness-Aviemore. But ALSO no trains Inverness-Aberdeen. NO replacement buses likely.
5. Limited service on Eurostar, following train failure on Thursday. Evening trains cancelled.
6. Signal failure, Cleethorpes.
7. Signal failure, Preston. West Coast delays.
8. No Northern services between Newcastle and Morpeth. NO replacement buses.
9. Reduced services in Strathclyde area.
10. Reduced services on South West Trains, Southern and Southeastern.
Very limited services on Thameslink route of First Capital Connect.