UK weather: Rail firms backtrack on widespread cancellations

Train operator Greater Anglia says Wednesday's services will be back to normal

Slow motion: the concourse at London Liverpool Street station during a quieter than normal rush-hour (Simon Calder)

After commuters accused Greater Anglia of excessive caution in cancelling dozens of rail services on Tuesday, the train operator for Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk relented and said it now aims to run a normal schedule on Wednesday.

As the evening rush hour got underway, Greater Anglia also said that it would operate right through to the normal last services, though subject to some delays and cancellations. It had previously planned to end services at 10pm on Tuesday evening.

Passengers were unable to travel on branch lines in Suffolk and Norfolk, and many main line services from London Liverpool Street to Stansted airport, Ipswich and Norwich were cancelled.

Great Northern, which had made substantial cuts to services during the day, also retracted plans to stop late-night trains north of Royston in Hertfordshire.

Southeastern, which runs between Kent, East Sussex and London, also reinstated services during the day. On Wednesday, High Speed services to and from London St Pancras will be affected by a speed restriction, which will also affect Eurostar trains to and from Paris and Brussels.

On South Western Railway between London Waterloo, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset, trains between Bournemouth and Weymouth may be disrupted. Passengers in Dorset have been told: “Please check before you leave for the station.”

After nearly 100 flights to and from Heathrow were cancelled pro-actively on Tuesday, only half as many have been grounded for Wednesday.

British Airways, which has cancelled 40 short-haul services, said: “We have agreed with Heathrow Airport, National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and other airlines to proactively reduce the flights schedules at the airport for several hours during the worst of the weather on Wednesday 28 February.”

Virgin Atlantic grounded a round-trip from Heathrow to Washington DC. A spokesperson for the airline said: “This has been cancelled as a result of the inclement weather and we’re currently working to rebook customers affected.”

In addition, Lufthansa cancelled four flights to and from Frankfurt, and its subsidiary Eurowings grounded services to and from Cologne. Swiss also axed a Zurich-Heathrow round trip.