Trees were felled and blocked tracks across Scotland on Monday. Credit: Network Rail Scotland

Railway services in Scotland have been affected by serious bad weather this week, and a second incoming storm on Tuesday evening has prompted the government-owned railway manager ScotRail to cancel all services from 7pm (GMT) on Tuesday 23 January. 

ScotRail said it would suspend all services – and published the times of the day’s final trains on its social media profiles – before the expected high winds and rain of Storm Jocelyn hit. 

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It explained that several of its lines had not been cleared of debris resulting from Storm Isha, which hit over the weekend and on Monday.  

The UK Meteorological Office began naming storms in 2015. 

Ongoing disruption

ScotRail added that services on Wednesday 24 January would be affected, and services would not begin until all tracks had been properly inspected for damage and debris. 

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Although the winds expected to hit the north of the UK may be less severe than those over the weekend, Storm Jocelyn could reach speeds of 80mph (128km/h). 

ScotRail’s customer operations director Phil Campbell explained: “Although the winds will be slightly less potent with Storm Jocelyn, our weather experts tell us it will be sufficient enough to bring down trees and more debris on the line.”

“Closing the network from seven pm tonight through the rush hour tomorrow is simply to make sure our customers and staff are made safe and also to give some certainty about what’s running and what’s not,” he added. 

UK-wide affect

Although Scotland will likely experience the worst of the winter storm, other regions and services across the UK will be affected. LNER, the TOC operating England’s East Coast Main Line has advised customers to not travel north of Newcastle-on-Tyne after 3pm. 

On the other coast, Avanti West Coast, TOC responsible for the popular London Euston – Glasgow Central service said its final journey of the day would leave London at 3:30pm, and was “expected to be extremely busy”.

Thousands of homes and businesses across the UK, especially in the northern regions and Scotland, remain without power after Storm Isha damaged infrastructure. 

A ‘danger to life’ warning has been issued in north east Scotland. At least one person was killed by a falling tree during the first storm of the week.