Media centre

Thursday 5 Dec 2013

Coastal train services to be suspended following flood warning

Region & Route:

Network Rail is warning passengers that a number of lines will be suspended from 16.30 today until 12.30 tomorrow in response to a severe flood warning.

The affected services are:

• East of Selby (including Hull to Bridlington)
• East of Barnetby (including Barton on Humber, Immingham and Grimsby-Cleethorpes)
• East of Sleaford

Trains will not be able to run beyond these points from 16.30 today, Thursday 5 December, although services will operate west of Selby, Barnetby and Sleaford.

Phil Verster, Route Managing Director for Network Rail, explained: “The forecast predicts severe flooding along the East Coast at high tide this evening. We have taken the decision to stop services in order to keep passengers and railway workers safe.

“Our teams are out before the predicted flood doing everything possible to protect the infrastructure. We will respond to any damaged caused by flood water as soon as it is safe to do so. An exceptionally high tide is also expected tomorrow morning. We will issue a further update on services tomorrow as soon as the situation becomes clear.

“Services further north and on the mainline are till suffering from disruption following todays high winds. Our teams have removed around 20 fallen trees and numerous items which have blown on to lines today. We are in the process of checking routes and restoring services as quickly as it is safe to do so. I thank passengers for their patience as we work to minimise the impact of this extreme weather on our railway.”