Travel disruption continues in wake of Storm Dudleyon February 16, 2022 at 10:49 pm

Travel disruption is expected to continue across Scotland in the wake of Storm Dudley.

Rail and ferry services have been impacted significantly and passengers are urged to check before travelling.

Much of the country experienced heavy rain and hurricane-force winds on Wednesday.

The Met Office issued an amber warning for wind lasting until midnight while a yellow warning is in place until 06:00 on Thursday.

The amber warning covered central Scotland, as well as parts of Northern Ireland and northern England above Hull.

The yellow warning covers most of the country south of Aberdeen, extending as far south as Birmingham and taking in Northern Ireland.

And a yellow warning for ice is in place from 23:00 on Wednesday until 10:00 on Thursday, covering northern Scotland and the Western Isles.

Thousands of people were left without power in the north east of England, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Lancashire. Northern Powergrid had to put people in a queue for its website due to demand.

In England, the Environment Agency had two flood warnings in place as of Wednesday night at Keswick Campsite and along the Cumbrian coastline from St Bees Head to Millom, along the coast from North Head to Haverigg, and 42 flood alerts, where flooding is possible.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued one flood warning from Ayr to Troon, with five other flood alerts.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney chaired a further meeting of the Scottish government’s resilience room.

A government spokeswoman said the weather’s impact on travel, power and services was being monitored.

While the Drumalbin weather station in South Lanarkshire recorded 71mph gales on Wednesday, a gust of 101mph was recorded on Aonach Mor, near Fort William.

The Met Office said the adverse conditions would likely mellow on Thursday.

Train journeys were stopped from 16:00 on Wednesday and ScotRail warned disruption on some lines would continue throughout Thursday.

The operator has been working with Network Rail to deal with wind damage to power supplies.

It said it had received reports of trees on the line, damage to overhead wires and signalling faults.

A ScotRail tweet read: “Teams will be working through the night to get services back up and running as quickly as possible, but disruption is expected to continue into the morning. We won’t be able to restore services until we know routes are safe.”

A fallen tree in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire caused significant damage to overhead railway lines – as a result, no trains are expected to run between Kilwinning and Largs/Adrossan on Thursday, Network Rail said.

Some cross-border services were due to continue at reduced speeds but Avanti West Coast said damage to overhead electric wires at Carlisle meant all lines towards Glasgow and Edinburgh were blocked.

TransPennine Express also warned customers that significant disruption of services was likely.

Safety checks will be carried out before it is decided whether services can resume on Thursday.

Similarly, CalMac cancelled services on 20 of the 29 ferry routes on Wednesday as waves were expected to reach 12 metres (39ft) in some areas.

Forestry and Land Scotland said it was still clearing up damage to forestry caused by Storm Arwen and Storm Malik and urged people to avoid woodland areas during this week’s storms.

A second storm – Storm Eunice – is expected to affect parts of Scotland and England on Friday.

The Met Office said conditions could be even more damaging that Storm Dudley, with stronger winds, heavy snow and possible blizzards in Scotland.

A yellow warning for wind and snow affecting central and southern Scotland has been issued from 03:00 until 18:00 on Friday.

Meanwhile an amber warning for wind affects England – south of Manchester – and Wales from 03:00 until 21:00 on Friday.

Storm Dudley is the fourth storm to hit Scotland since November. Last month alone, storms Malik and Corrie caused power cuts for 118,000 homes in Scotland and 80,000 in northern England.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), which supplies power in the north of Scotland, said it was prepared for potential damage to the network and had brought in more engineers.

The firm urged people to keep their mobile phones charged, keep battery or wind-up torches and beware of fallen power lines.

It also advised people to keep the national 105 emergency helpline on hand.

SP Energy Networks, which supplies power in central and southern Scotland, issued similar advice, adding that conditions could make it extremely challenging for engineers to fix power cuts – especially if climbing poles or pylons is required.

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