National Rail has announced that because of the yellow weather warnings issued by the Meteorological Office in connection with the impending arrival of Storm Ciarán train services on a number of routes across England and Wales are likely to be affected to a greater or lesser degree.

The yellow weather warnings are currently in force from early evening tomorrow, Wednesday, 1 November until early morning on Friday, 3 November.

The warnings expect yellow weather warnings will experience heavy rain accompanied by strong winds that could affect journeys across Wales, the South of England, and the Midlands on Wednesday and Thursday, and across the North East of England on Thursday and Friday.

The impact on the railways caused by stormy weather can result in delays and cancellations to journeys caused by:

• High winds, which mean that trains must run at slower speeds than normal in order to operate safely;
• Strong winds, which can cause trees to fall down, and along with other debris can block tracks and damage power lines;
• Heavy rainfall, which can cause lines to become flooded, with the tracks being underwater and damage caused to embankments;
• Flooding of railway lines, which can affect the operation of points and electrical systems.

Storm Ciarán is likely to affect most train companies operating services in the south of England and South Wales could be affected by the storm, and the following train operators have issued statements how their services are likely to be affected:

• Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink;
• Southeastern;
• South Western Railway;
• CrossCountry, which is advising its customers to check their entire journey if they intend to travel on the afternoon of Wednesday 1 November and the morning of Thursday 2 November.
• Transport for Wales is currently advising customers that it expects there will be disruption to some routes in west Wales. The latest information regarding journeys during Storm Ciarán can be found here.

At the moment, the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner shows normal planned services. However, as the storm develops, things may change at short notice which may also result in trains being altered in advance or at short notice. The advice is that anyone who intends to travel between Wednesday, 1 and Friday 3, November should check their whole journey before they travel.