Storm Callum and Hurricane Leslie cause travel chaos across UK and Portugal

Arriva Trains Wales warns passengers on the Heart of Wales line ’not to travel until further notice’

Extreme weather in the UK and the Atlantic is causing severe disruption to public transport.

As Storm Callum continues to batter the western side of Britain, dozens of trains in Wales have been cancelled.

The mid-Wales line between Machynlleth and Newtown is closed until Monday morning, and no trains are running on the North Wales branch line between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Trains along lines beside the coast are running only when tides permit. Between Swansea and Carmarthen, no trains are scheduled after 7pm “due to anticipated coastal flooding caused by strong winds coinciding with high tides,” according to Arriva Trains Wales.

The same applied on the Machynlleth-Barmouth-Pwllheli line from 9am to 1pm.

The Heart of Wales line from Swansea to Shrewsbury is closed until further notice due to flooding. “We are advising passengers not to travel until further notice and we are unable to provide road transport due to safety concerns,” says the train operator.

Arriva Trains Wales has offered anyone with a ticket dated for travel today the chance to use it on Sunday 14 or Monday 15 October.

On the West Coast mainline from Preston to Glasgow and Edinburgh, speed restrictions will apply right through the weekend up to 10am on Monday morning.

Virgin Trains says: “Journeys between Preston and Scotland are expected to take at least half an hour longer.”

The train operator has lifted all ticket restrictions for Saturday, and said that anyone with a ticket who chose not to travel will be able to claim a full refund with no administration fee.

In Devon and Cornwall, Great Western Railway services will run at a reduced speed between Plymouth and Penzance extending journey times by up to 20 minutes.

CrossCountry services are suspended between Plymouth and Penzance. Services between Exeter St Davids and Paignton or Plymouth will begin only after high tide, because of concerns about sea water affecting trains at Dawlish.

Services operated by Northern Rail are heavily disrupted by the latest Saturday strike. Members of the RMT union are engaged in a long-running dispute over the role of guards. Around three in 10 trains are running, with very few after 6pm.

“Trains that do run are expected to be extremely busy,” says Northern Rail.

Ferry services are getting back to normal after widespread disruption on Friday. Across the Irish Sea, P&O Ferries says it hopes to run a normal service, but Stena Line says: “Due to extreme weather conditions today all sailings [are] subject to delay.”

In the Western Isles of Scotland, Caledonian MacBrayne is actually operating more ferries on some routes due to the backlog created by cancellations yesterday. But Canna is inaccessible from Mallaig on Saturday due to a ”heavy swell to the west of Rum”.

After more than 100 flights were cancelled on Friday, operations are getting back to normal. But knock-on disruption means that Thomas Cook passengers from Tenerife who were due in on Friday night arrived instead on Saturday afternoon.

Flights on TUI from Antalya to Bristol and easyJet from Paphos to Manchester were both around seven hours late, turning evening journeys into all-night trips.

British Airways and easyJet flight from Gatwick to Madeira have been cancelled - along with all other air services to and from the Portuguese island.

Hurricane Leslie is sweeping past the island on a track towards the Portuguese mainland and continuing into Spain later in the weekend.

Airlines need not pay cash compensation for cancellations caused by poor weather, but passengers are entitled to meals and accommodation until they can be flown to their destination - on a rival carrier if necessary.