Storm Isha may affect your journey in parts of England, Scotland and Wales on Sunday 21 and Monday 22 January

[Bletchleyite]

Back to rail, I'm surprised not to have heard of any of Preston's roof falling off as it usually does when there's a light breeze. Has it all managed to stay up this time?

 

[QueensCurve]

Saltcoats


View attachment 150803

Link to this at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-68042365

I seem to recall that U-toob once had a video clip showing arching as the waves hit the wires at Saltcoats but I can't find it anymore.

There are fatalities on the roads every single day. Sadly this week's storms will likely result in some.

I think there's been one passenger fatality on the railways since Greyrigg in 2007, so I'm happy for them to stick with the "tied up it knots" approach.

And one more at Carmont.

 

[JonathanH]

Edinburgh to Bathgate and Glasgow Central to Paisley Canal appear to be the first routes restored to operation in Scotland today around 10am.

 

[geoffk]

Sunny here now in Exeter, no wind. It sounded quite rough overnight but nothing out of the ordinary. Cancellations on SW main line this morning, looks like signalling issues, nothing to Barnstaple because of bridge damage, otherwise everything seems to be running.

 

[al78]

Having known about this storm nearly a week ago and having booked non-refundable split advance tickets costing over £100 I took the chance and travelled from Horsham to Manchester yesterday via Leeds. No travel problems other than my Leeds to Manchester train was cancelled, which as it was the only cancelled train I could see, likely had nothing to do with the storm and rather was just standard Northern Rail. It worked out anyway because I got a similarly timed train which got me to Victoria a few minutes earlier than the cancelled train would have done, and even cycling from Manchester to Irlams o' th' Height was uneventful, aside from some strong gusts at times. I have now discovered cycling from Victoria is several minutes quicker than cycling from Piccadilly because there are far fewer traffic lights up to the Salford border.

What surprised me during the journey was that yesterday was as busy or busier on the train and the tube than the weekday peak rush hour. I wondered if there were any events going on in London.

I travel back to Horsham on Wednesday when there are more strong winds forecast. Roll on Spring.

 

[MikeWM]

Luckily not so severe here in the east. Apart from the very first early morning trains that were used as route provers, Greater Anglia has a mere 3 cancellations currently across the entire network.

It does seem that the Met Office knew something that wasn't apparent from the public-facing models when keeping the east in a yellow warning rather than extending the amber. Or they got lucky

But yes, was quite gusty for a while - rather more so in Ely than the storm a few weeks ago - but nothing too dramatic. Even Ely-Kings Lynn managed to keep running to end of service, though looks like it had speed restrictions after about 1900, and GN seem to have run a 'normal' service this morning.

 

[jkkne]

By far the worst windy weather we've had in Northumberland in decades but it looks like Network Rail, their partners and even local councils were prepared and mitigations in place has kept disruption to a minimum.
99mph winds inland around the Alnwick area

No idea how they've kept the Tyne Valley line open but credit to them!

 

[cheekybifta]

And one more at Carmont.

Sorry wasn't clear there, I meant Carmont as the one that's occurred since Grayrigg, or is there another I've missed?

 

[DarloRich]

I travelled back from the Chester area yesterday and news of this storm warning passed me by. I was lucky to be on Crewe > Euston train that ran through without incident.

I think any later in the day and I would have been caught up either in the tree on the line near Wolves or stood at Crewe looking for another way home!

 

[snalty]

Sounds like the ECML north of Newcastle should be open to Edinburgh soon.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

What is the current advice on travelling tomorrow? I have an important meeting in Glasgow that I need to attend.

What happened to the (important) meeting in Glasgow?

 

[Peter0124]

What happened to the (important) meeting in Glasgow?

Probably zoom, my university lectures went online today as no Scotrail trains are running

 

[dk1]

It does seem that the Met Office knew something that wasn't apparent from the public-facing models when keeping the east in a yellow warning rather than extending the amber. Or they got lucky

But yes, was quite gusty for a while - rather more so in Ely than the storm a few weeks ago - but nothing too dramatic. Even Ely-Kings Lynn managed to keep running to end of service, though looks like it had speed restrictions after about 1900, and GN seem to have run a 'normal' service this morning.

Strategically placed coaches and drivers at several major GA stations still just in case they are required.

 

[Alanko]

Edinburgh to Bathgate and Glasgow Central to Paisley Canal appear to be the first routes restored to operation in Scotland today around 10am.

Nothing on the Edinburgh - Glasgow line yet, beyond a 385 on a proving run, heading towards Edinburgh.

 

[800001]

Sounds like the ECML north of Newcastle should be open to Edinburgh soon.

First LNER southbound 1E13 13:30 to King’s Cross.

 

[lrailadventure]

Back to rail, I'm surprised not to have heard of any of Preston's roof falling off as it usually does when there's a light breeze. Has it all managed to stay up this time?

I was wondering about Preston's roof, there hasn't been any reports overnight of it coming down from what I can see but I'm travelling there later so knowing my luck, it'll fall down as I'm approaching the station .

 

[DarloRich]

Is there another storm forecast for later in the week?

 

[adc82140]

I feel that the railways in general managed expectations well over this. I'm getting the impression that the storm tracked a little further west than first thought, as here on the Hants/Dorset border whilst it was a rather wild night, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary for a winter storm. The ferries even ran to time out of Portsmouth....

 

[Dan G]

I notice that the 06:15 from King's Cross has set off for Edinburgh, due to arrive at 11:15 and is the earliest planned arrival into Edinburgh today

1S04 stopped at Newcastle

Realtime Trains | 1S04 0615 London Kings Cross to Newcastle | 22/01/2024

Real-time train running information for 1S04 0615 departure from London Kings Cross to Newcastle on 22/01/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[adc82140]

Is there another storm forecast for later in the week?

I think the next one Tues/Wed is more of a rain event than extreme high winds.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Is there another storm forecast for later in the week?

Designated Storm 'Jocelyn'. Wind and/or rain related yellow weather warnings issued (the worst of the weather expected Tuesday/Wednesday, as @adc82140 has just mentioned) with a varying impact depending on locality, but doesn't really affect London, so possibly the media won't be particularly all that fussed.

 

[Dan G]

Will be pretty windy again in the north early on Wednesday morning

 

[Smidster]

Is there another storm forecast for later in the week?

Yes - Storm Jocelyn has just been named for tomorrow evening into Wednesday.

#StormJocelyn has been named by @MetEireann and is forecast to bring strong winds and heavy rain to the UK on Tuesday and into Wednesday

More fun on the way.

 

[InOban]

I think the next one Tues/Wed is more of a rain event than extreme high winds.

Depends where you are. Up here the forecast winds speeds for Tuesday night are just as high as last night.

 

[londonmidland]

Is there another storm forecast for later in the week?

Yes. Storm Jocelyn has been named by the Irish Met Office, bringing further spells of strong winds and heavy rain.

#StormJocelyn has been named by @MetEireann and is forecast to bring strong winds and heavy rain to the UK on Tuesday and into Wednesday #weatheraware

Gusts of up to 65mph inland, with coastal areas up to 70mph.

Northern areas as well as Scotland expected to be the worst affected, however it’ll be breezy everywhere.

 

[Falcon1200]

That's true but planes have been continuing to depart towards airports that remain open, despite the disruption.

There’s a Tenerife to Edinburgh diverting to Cologne!

Aviation is slightly more resilient in these conditions because the aircraft are built to handle landing in strong winds, it has to be something super major to close an airport fully. A Boeing 737 can land in gusts of up to 35 knots/40 miles per hour, anything above that means diversion.

Wife's flight home last night from Gran Canaria tried to land at Glasgow, couldn't so was diverted to Liverpool (which is at least, kind of, in the same country...) And to be fair to Jet2 they arranged road transport and passengers arrived in Glasgow at around 0530 (planned arrival was 2050). What was pathetic however was the lack of information at Glasgow Airport, only after eventually finding a member of staff did I discover the plane was diverted, no updates were provided for those waiting, like me, to pick up passengers. And to add insult to injury, I then got charged £12 for parking, for a wasted journey!

What seems strange to me is that planes were still heading to airports at the height of the storm and then finding landing impossible. do the airlines not pro-actively monitor wind speeds and react accordingly?

Regarding compensation to delayed passengers, Delay Repay will apply on the railway; Wife has been offered £10 by the airline.....

 

[Scotrail314209]

Wife's flight home last night from Gran Canaria tried to land at Glasgow, couldn't so was diverted to Liverpool (which is at least, kind of, in the same country...) And to be fair to Jet2 they arranged road transport and passengers arrived in Glasgow at around 0530 (planned arrival was 2050). What was pathetic however was the lack of information at Glasgow Airport, only after eventually finding a member of staff did I discover the plane was diverted, no updates were provided for those waiting, like me, to pick up passengers. And to add insult to injury, I then got charged £12 for parking, for a wasted journey!

What seems strange to me is that planes were still heading to airports at the height of the storm and then finding landing impossible. do the airlines not pro-actively monitor wind speeds and react accordingly?

Regarding compensation to delayed passengers, Delay Repay will apply on the railway; Wife has been offered £10 by the airline.....

I think it’s also cheaper for them to make an attempt and divert rather than outright cancel the flight. In these circumstances, pilots will take on extra fuel in order to be able to safely divert.

Flights from the Canaries are slightly different, because of the length and distance you don’t get much space to add extra fuel. If you add extra fuel in Gran Canaria or Tenerife you need to offload passengers or divert to Lisbon, Porto or Faro and refuel there, which will cost the airline even more.

It’s why it likely took only one attempt because they didn’t have the fuel to try again, so diversion would be the safest option. It’s why there were so many 7700s (emergency) from inbound Canaries aircraft as they were short on fuel.

Another issue is crew hours, because we can only fly a certain amount in one day (and the Canaries are already nearly at the maximum), it doesn’t allow much play time either.

I do think that domestic and Irish flights shouldn’t have been allowed to take off, a Ryanair flight from Stansted to Edinburgh ended up in Shannon as a result.

 

[QueensCurve]

Regarding compensation to delayed passengers, Delay Repay will apply on the railway; Wife has been offered £10 by the airline.....

Ah, the Brexit benefit that airlines are no longer required to pay compansation.

 

[The Puddock]

What seems strange to me is that planes were still heading to airports at the height of the storm and then finding landing impossible. do the airlines not pro-actively monitor wind speeds and react accordingly?

Unless the wind speeds are consistently above the limits for the aircraft (which are reasonably high) for a sustained period then all they need is a few minutes lull between gusts to make an approach and land. In those circumstances it’s better to head for the destination and hold there to wait and see if an approach will be possible than to divert unnecessarily early. That’s why you’ll see a mixture of landings and diversions over the course of a few hours.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Ah, the Brexit benefit that airlines are no longer required to pay compansation.

This isn't true as the compensation payment provisions the EU provided were brought into UK law and have not (yet) been repealed.

Airlines just aren't required to compensate if the delay is out of their control, whereas the railway is required to compensate regardless of why, including "force majeure" like yesterday's weather. The reason for this is that EU261 was primarily intended to be strong financial motivation for airlines to rein in the practice of overbooking (which had got rather out of hand) and of cancelling flights where they haven't sold enough seats to make it viable, in both cases with little or no compensation to those caught out. It wasn't intended as a generic delay compensation mechanism, though it does sort of do that as a side effect.