Flooded rail lines cause misery for commuters
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Your support makes all the difference.Commuters are last night continuing to suffer disruption from freak showers that struck on Wednesday, with work still going on to clear floodwaters from rail lines.
Commuters are last night continuing to suffer disruption from freak showers that struck on Wednesday, with work still going on to clear floodwaters from rail lines.
London's Thameslink service was operating an emergency timetable, and passengers were told that delays should be expected although all services were running. The company said engineers were still working to clear floodwaters from a tunnel in the Farringdon area of central London.
Southbound services from Bedford to London were operating at approximate 20-minute intervals, and all services were terminating at West Hampstead, where passengers were advised to take the Underground.
Passengers travelling north from Brighton to London had a near-normal service during the rush hour, but there were only two trains an hour following the peak period. The Luton to Sutton service was also severely restricted, with one train an hour instead of four.
All London Underground terminals were reopened after the torrential rain caused three mainline stations – St Pancras and Kings Cross, Liverpool Street and Euston – to close temporarily during Wednesday night's rush hour.
Jay Merritt, spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies, warned that the disruption caused by Wednesday night's storms would have created a "huge backlog of services". Rail companies were advising commuters to allow extra time for their journeys into work.
Elsewhere, heavy showers spread across Norfolk and Suffolk yesterday evening and the rain spread into Wales. The Anglian region was still under flood watch yesterday evening, although no flood warnings were in force after the Thames, Southwest and Midlands regions were given the all-clear.
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