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Storm Diana: UK trains and planes disrupted by bad weather

Virgin Trains says passengers with tickets for today can travel on later services or postpone their travel until tomorrow

Simon Calder
Travel Correspondent
Thursday 29 November 2018 11:38 GMT
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UK weather: The latest Met Office forecast

Continuing stormy weather is causing travel disruption across the UK.

Rail passengers are being affected by speed restrictions, imposed in case debris is blown onto tracks.

A blanket speed restriction is in place until noon in the West Midlands. As a result, Virgin Trains has cancelled one of its three hourly services between London Euston and Birmingham, and also to Manchester.

Blackpool services have been cancelled all together.

Virgin Trains told passengers: “Customers with tickets for today can travel on later services or postpone their travel until tomorrow, and these will still be accepted.”

There will be a speed restriction in place until 1pm on railways in Sussex, south of Gatwick Airport and along the coastal line. Trains have been cancelled, curtailed or delayed.

South Western Railway has reduced its services between Salisbury and Exeter, while a fallen tree west of Woking is disrupting services to Southampton.

Many trains in and out of London Waterloo have been delayed or cancelled.

Speed restrictions are causing delays of up to an hour on the Great Western line in Devon and Cornwall from Exeter to Penzance, and on Chiltern Railways from London via Birmingham to Kidderminster.

British Airways has cancelled 28 flights to and from Heathrow, include departures to Barcelona, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Nice.

An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Bristol was diverted to Birmingham, and the return service was cancelled.

Passengers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to meals and, if necessary, accommodation until they can be flown to their destinations. But cash compensation will not be paid because the cause is beyond the airlines’ control.

A planeload of passengers between Heathrow and Perth were delayed by 24 hours because of the late arrival of the incoming Qantas jet.

Tuesday’s QF9 departures encountered problems at Perth Airport and as a result the crew were unable to perform the flight within their permitted hours.

A spokesperson for Qantas said: “Customers were provided with accommodation in Perth and in London as a result of the delay.

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused and we have had a very high dispatch rate of operating our direct services between Perth and London.”

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