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Thursday 17 Feb 2022

Storm Eunice: rail travel warning for North West passengers

Region & Route:

North West & Central

| North West & Central: North West

• Rail companies in Network Rail's North West route recommend people do not travel on Friday.
• Rail staff have worked flat out to get the West Coast main line and North West routes clear after Storm Dudley.
• Trees fell onto the overhead wires which power trains in Cumbria, Lancashire, Manchester and Cheshire.
• Storm Eunice is on its way and speed restrictions will be in place for trains across the entire country on Friday 18 February.

Rail passengers are being warned of further travel disruption when Storm Eunice hits the country in the next few hours.

The warning comes as Network Rail engineers worked to clear trees and debris from railway lines on the West Coast main line and other key North West rail routes after Storm Dudley brought gusts of 90mph overnight.

With just a few hours calm between the storms, specialist teams worked all day to clear up after Dudley.

Trees were brought down in multiple locations including Penrith in Cumbria, Garstang in Lancashire, Levenshulme in Manchester, and Styal in Cheshire.

With Storm Eunice forecast to be even more ferocious, passengers are being warned that journeys tomorrow will face disruption.

Network Rail will impose blanket safety speed restrictions – 50mph in most places – on the main rail lines across the country, with winds set to reach as high as 90mph in some areas.

Meanwhile in Wales all services will be suspended on Friday because of the storm's expected severity.

• Latest: Storm Eunice: Railway to close as biggest storm in a decade to hit Wales

Passengers are advised to check with their individual train operator for their latest travel advice.

Phil James, Network Rail’s North West route director, said: “With such strong winds expected from Storm Eunice we know that disruption to passengers’ journeys is inevitable and we strongly recommend people do not travel on Friday. We have rapid response on standby to clear routes impacted by the bad weather and keep train passengers safe.”

Paul Watson, operations director for TransPennine Express, said: “Storm Eunice will be the second storm to impact our services this week and it is likely to cause major disruption to train services, right across the North of England and into Scotland.

“The most important thing is that our customers and staff are kept safe, and we are urging customers not to travel by train on Friday 18 February. We are instead asking customers to make their journeys on either Thursday 17 or Saturday 19 February.

“The situation with the weather is changing all the time, and customers should continue to check our website or National Rail Enquires for the latest information.”

Chris Jackson, regional director for Northern, said: “Storms are expected to cause widespread disruption across the rail network over the coming days. As such, there will be a number of planned cancellations. Our focus will remain on getting people to where they need to be safely across our network. Passengers are advised to check as close to departure as possible for the latest information as this will be a changing picture.”

Richard Scott, director of corporate affairs for Avanti West Coast, said: “Storm Eunice means we’ll be operating an amended timetable on Friday 18^th February and journeys will take a lot longer due to speed restrictions. We strongly recommend customers do not travel on Friday and instead travel on Saturday 19^th February. Anyone who doesn’t want to travel can get a full refund. We’re monitoring the weather closely and advise customers to check before they travel.”

John Robson, CrossCountry regional director North West and West Midlands, said: “Storm Eunice is expected to cause significant disruption to services across our network on Friday. We will be running a much reduced service and journey times will take longer as blanket speed restrictions – 50mph in most places – will be imposed for safety reasons across large swathes of the UK. We strongly advise that customers avoid travel on Friday and re-plan their journey for another day.   We will be assessing the service that can be offered for the rest of the weekend once we have further details about the extent of the storm.  Full information can be found on our website.”

Greg Suligowski, head of customer strategy for Merseyrail, said: "Strong winds are forecast on Friday 18 February and we expect disruption to services from midday.

"Passengers are advised not to travel unless necessary and to prepare alternative transport for the afternoon in case services can no longer run, as it is unlikely rail replacement busses will be able to operate.”

Matt Stacey, head of stations at East Midlands Railway, said: “We strongly advise customers who need to make a journey with us in the next few days to choose either today or Saturday. The strength of Storm Eunice will mean that on Friday there is likely to be widespread disruption to services across the country’s rail network.

"However, we understand that not everyone can rearrange their travel plans and customers may still need to travel by rail. If this is the case, we suggest customers leave themselves plenty of extra time to reach their destination.”

Network Rail and train operators are working together to keep people safe. 

Additional engineers will be out across the network ready to react to problems when they happen and will check all affected lines for damage before reintroducing services as quickly as possible.

People who re-plan a journey for Friday will be able to use their ticket to travel on equivalent services with their train operator any time on Thursday or Saturday.

​​People can keep up to date by checking www.nationalrail.co.uk or by following Network Rail Twitter accounts @NetworkRailMAN, @NetworkRailLIV, and @NetworkRailLC.