Weather hits road and rail travel

Commuters had a miserable return to work today as bad weather continued to cause havoc to road and rail travel.

A number of major road routes were affected by flooding or by fallen trees while landslips added to the problems for train travellers whose services were already disrupted by planned engineering work.

This work included a major project affecting Gatwick Airport station which meant that no Gatwick Express train services were able to run.

Some of the work overran today, resulting in no morning trains between Redhill in Surrey and Three Bridges in Sussex.

Buses were running between East Grinstead and Gatwick Airport and Three Bridges, while buses were also operating between Coulsdon Town and Gatwick Airport /Three Bridges, with some additional buses running between Purley and Three Bridges and between Victoria station in London and Gatwick Airport.

To make matters worse for travellers in this area of southern England, a landslip at Ockley in Surrey meant no trains were able to run between Horsham and Dorking, with buses being laid on instead.

Pre-Christmas landslips in four separate locations have meant there are no rail services between Petersfield in Hampshire and Haslemere in Surrey.

This section of the line is not expected to open before Monday January 6.

There are currently no trains running on the Isle of Wight due to flooding. There are around 20 locations near Ryde where the land supporting the track has been washed away.

On the roads, one lane was closed on the M48 Severn Bridge due to strong winds, while a section of the M77 in Glasgow was closed because of flooding.

A landslip at Hawick on the Scottish Borders led to hold-ups on the A7, while a section of the A36 in Hampshire was closed due to a fallen tree and fallen power cables.

A fallen tree was also the cause of the closing of a section of the A35 in Dorset, while another fallen tree led to the partial blocking of the A465 in Monmouthshire, South Wales.

The A475 Ceredigion in mid-Wales, the A487 in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, and the A3059 in Cornwall were all blocked because of fallen trees.

Among many roads affected by flooding were the A71 in East Ayrshire in Scotland, the A1101 in Norfolk, the A39 in Cornwall and the A48 in Gloucestershire.

There were speed restrictions on the A38 Tamar Bridge in Devon due to strong winds.

Bosses at Gatwick warned passengers to allow extra time to reach the west London airport, with travellers told to expect their journey to take up to two hours longer than normal due to the train restrictions.

Source Article from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/weather-hits-road-rail-travel-094036411.html

Weather hits road and rail travel