Updated 11.50, 12.45, 12.55

Train services in many parts of Britain are being reduced as Storm Goretti approaches.

There are amber snow warnings affecting Wales, the Midlands, the South West and Yorkshire & Humber, while an amber wind warning has been issued for Cornwall, where gusts could reach 145km/h (90mph) later today and as a result all trains in the county will cease running by 18.00. There will also be no service this evening on the Barnstaple and Okehampton branches in Devon. GWR said it was not expecting to provide rail replacement buses in Devon or Cornwall because of hazardous conditions on the roads. Tonight’s sleeper trains between London and Cornwall have also been cancelled.

TransPennine Express will be suspending services between Manchester and Sheffield from 18.00 tonight until Saturday, and GWR will not be running between Oxford and Hereford this evening. Network Rail has also announced that services on a number of lines in the East Midlands will not run after 20.00.

Welsh routes likely to be affected include Bidston-Wrexham, Llandudno-Blaenau Ffestiniog, Swansea-Shrewsbury, Carmarthen-Whitland/Pembroke Dock/Milford Haven/Fishguard Harbour, and between Treherbert and Cardiff Central.

Disruption is set to continue on Chiltern Railways routes tomorrow and the service will be halved, with no trains running north of Birmingham Moor Street or to Stratford-upon-Avon. The stations at Hatton, Lapworth, Kings Sutton, Sudbury Hill Harrow, Sudbury & Harrow Road and South Ruislip will not be served.

The weather is also disrupting international services because of wintry conditions on the continent, and Eurostar is warning that ‘severe delays and last-minute cancellations’ may affect trains from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Earlier heavy falls of snow are still causing problems for ScotRail passengers in parts of the Highlands. Buses are replacing most trains on the Far North Line if roads prove to be passable, and snowploughs are at work clearing the line to Wick. LNER services are returning gradually between Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Conditions are expected to become severe from mid-afternoon, and yellow warnings of snow, ice and rain have been issued in most areas, with the rough weather continuing until tomorrow morning.

Train operators are advising passengers to postpone their journeys if they can.

The railway is being prepared for the storm. Network Rail said staff are clearing and gritting platforms, organising extra runs of Snow and Ice Treatment Trains and snow ploughs, arranging chainsaw gangs to be on duty through the storm to remove blockages, checking tunnels for low-hanging icicles, inspecting key drainage sites, checking point heaters and making contingency plans as timetables change.

Network Rail regional director Jake Kelly said: ‘Thousands of railway colleagues will do everything they can to keep the railway running across the country on Thursday night and Friday morning, but even with their best efforts we are concerned that the scale of the storm means there may still be some disruption in some areas.

‘While Storm Goretti is forecast to impact most of Britain, there are some areas that could be more affected than others, so our best advice to customers is simply to arm themselves with the best information they can, from National Rail or their operators.

‘In the meantime, we are working hard to get the network as best prepared as we can so we can keep rail customers moving.’

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