Travel chaos continues after Storm Henk causes ‘severe disruption’ across UK

Transport delays are set to continue this morning after Storm Henk battered large parts of the UK with strong winds and heavy rain.

Londoners were warned not to leave their homes and a woman died after being crushed by a falling tree on Tuesday as winds of up to 94mph swept across the country.

Fallen trees and damaged trains caused severe disruption on multiple railway lines, including South Western Railway and Greater Anglia – and it’s highly likely that delays and cancellations will continue into this morning (January 3).

A Greater Anglia spokesman said train services were experiencing major disruption due to ‘multiple incidents’ late on Tuesday night, adding: ‘Services on other lines may be cancelled, delayed, or revised.

‘Greater Anglia and Network Rail will be working overnight to restore services and minimise disruption on Wednesday 3 January.’

There are already severe delays in Norwich, Colchester, Peterborough and Cambridge.

And a joint statement from South Western Railway and Network Rail said this morning that disruption linked to the storm will continue throughout Wednesday.

The statement said: ‘We are very sorry for the disruption customers experienced yesterday, due to the serious and widespread impact of Storm Henk.

‘The severe winds led to trees on the line damaging or delaying trains in multiple locations across our network.’

Southeastern said a number of its services had been cancelled this morning, as due to the poor weather ‘some of our trains are not in the right places to start services’.

Great Northern Rail said services would be delayed from Cambridge to Ely and Kings Lynn until 10am as they work to repair damaged overhead wires and remove a damaged train.

Southern Rail also said delays were expected with repairs ongoing between Uckfield, Buxted and Crowborough.

Thameslink said services are back to normal after disruptions on Tuesday.

The strongest gales were recorded at the Needles Old Battery in the Isle of Wight, where wind speeds reached 94mph.

Gusts of 81mph were reached at Exeter Airport in Devon, and top winds hit 71mph at the Isle of Portland in Dorset and also at Mumbles Head in Glamorgan.

The Energy Networks Association – which collates data from all energy providers – estimated that 38,000 customers were without power as a direct result of storm damage, as of 7pm on Tuesday.

The Environment Agency said there were 368 active alerts in England for possible flooding, 322 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected and, in Northampton, one danger to life severe flood warning.

In Wales there was one severe flood warning, 15 flood warnings and 39 flood alerts, according to Natural Resources Wales.

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