Storm Goretti disruption - 8/9 January 2026

[Sleepy]

!C80 is really struggling to get to Penzance. 78 minutes to get from Penwithers Junction to Chasewater. I'd hate to be travelling on the train and even driving. Here we've had a couple of power outages. Nearby we've had a gust of 98mph. Hate to say what it's like five miles away on the open section at Penzance.

Would expect it was running at severely reduced speed limit given Network Rail wanted the line closed earlier. UPDATE: now reached Hayle so running 3 hours 45 mins late !

 

[LowLevel]

Just to be clear about a lot of the route closures - in the East Midlands NR have introduced their key route strategy so junctions have been set for key routes to avoid points failures. That's driven a lot of route closures.

 

[Requeststop]

Would expect it was running at severely reduced speed limit given Network Rail wanted the line closed earlier.

220 late. It's made it to Camborne. The passenger being taken ill at Saltash certainly exacerbated the delay. No doubt the service would have made it to Penzance and avoided the worst of the storm. Local Radio Reporting many trees down around the county. Wouldn't be surprised if a few trees fell down on lines tonight as well. Also, High tide due in Penzance soon. the driver of 1C80 should be given a reward for his efforts tonight.

 

[Freemo]

I'll bet the snow in Leeuwarden or Groningen is at least as deep as anything we get here and the temperatures far lower.

In the next 24 hours, there is not nearly as much snow forecast as for the Hope Valley. I would tend to agree that a full day's cancellation was an overreaction were the conditions the same.

I know Hadfield and Buxton have been raised, but I thought Dinting viaduct had faced issues in this sort of weather recently. I wouldn't be surprised if there are similar bottlenecks going out to Buxton.

 

[Fokx]

Interestingly a story has appeared in the John O' Groats local newspaper yesterday about passengers being stranded in Scotland due to poor winter weather conditions.

Passengers claim they were left to fend for themselves whilst ScotRail claim they were told multiple times and in numerous ways that this would be the case, and yet still decided to travel.

You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Thurso resident slams ScotRail for leaving vulnerable passengers ‘stranded’ at Georgemas Junction during blizzard

A Thurso man condemns ScotRail for allegedly leaving passengers, including some with health conditions and babies, stranded in blizzard conditions.

www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk

A Thurso resident condemns ScotRail for allegedly leaving passengers, including some with health conditions and babies, ‘stranded in the middle of nowhere’ in blizzard conditions on Tuesday (January 6).“Consequently, many people asked what would be happening at Georgemas Junction, and staff informed passengers that road transport would be arranged.”

He claims that passengers suggested that this should have been sorted before the train left Inverness. But we were assured it would be sorted whilst the train was heading north.

Around Invergordon, the conductor came through the train and informed passengers that bosses were unable to sort out any buses or taxis at Georgemas Junction, and we had to make our own way to ThursoUpon arrival at Georgemas Junction, he said that the access road “was like a skating rink” and not cleared. “Around 30 people disembarked, including the young, the old, disabled people and babies.

“The train then left the station without the staff giving any regard to the health and safety of passengers, including babies. People were waiting for at least 45 minutes in sub-zero temperatures as passengers arranged taxis themselves because Scotrail failed in their duty."

ScotRail customer operations director Phil Campbell refuted some of the man’s allegations and said that passengers were kept fully informed of the worsening weather situation throughout the journey.
He said: “Prior to the train departing Inverness, it was made clear to customers that it would not call at Thurso due to a points failure at Georgemas Junction, both via the departure boards at the station and on the ScotRail journey app.

“Customers were also advised of this by the conductor, in a pre-departure announcement, where they were also told that if they stayed on board, they would have to make their own onward travel arrangements.They were all fully informed that because of the worsening road conditions, we couldn’t arrange replacement transport for the 20 customers choosing to leave at Georgemas."

 

[londonmidland]

West Midlands Railway services have deteriorated across the West Midlands this evening.

• Overhead Line issues between Wolverhampton - Shrewsbury
• Points failure in the Wolverhampton area
• Multiple points failures across the Snow Hill line

 

[Intercity_225]

What's happening with the Night Riviera considering the fact that 1C80 has barely made it to Penzance in 4 and a half hours?

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Chiltern operating a 50% reduced timetable tomorrow, as posted on their website:

Customers travelling with Chiltern Railways are advised that due to Storm Goretti, a significantly reduced service (50 per cent of normal timetable) will be in place on Friday 09 January.

In addition, customers should check before they travel today (Thursday 08 January) as services may be subject to disruption due to the weather warnings from 5pm this evening. Late night services may be amended at short notice.

On Friday 09 January, one Chiltern Railways service per hour will operate in each direction between:

• Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone
• London Marylebone and Oxford
• London Marylebone and High Wycombe
• London Marylebone and Aylesbury via Amersham
• Aylesbury and Princes Risborough

There will be no Chiltern Railways service north of Birmingham Moor Street or on the line to Stratford-upon-Avon. Hatton, Lapworth, Kings Sutton, Sudbury Hill Harrow, Sudbury & Harrow Road and South Ruislip will also not be served on Friday. Rail replacement buses will not be in operation.

Chiltern customers with tickets on Thursday evening or Friday can use their tickets earlier on Thursday or on Saturday 10 January instead.

Where customers no longer wish to travel, a refund can be requested from the original point of purchase.

Please stay safe and take care.

While I understand it probably can’t happen from a pathing point of view, with what appear to be slightly slacker timings, not sure Kings Sutton and the Sudburys will be happy with losing their already minuscule service.

Considering the Wycombe stopper arrives at Wycombe 13 mins before the next down service to Oxford, there would technically be the pathing space. Maybe a collision with the down Birmingham for the up Wycombe stopper if it left a few mins earlier, so I’m guessing they’re going for maximum reliability, which makes sense.

West Midlands Railway services have deteriorated across the West Midlands this evening.

chiltern also affected tonight by the snow hill lines points failures

 

[CHAPS2034]

What's happening with the Night Riviera considering the fact that 1C80 has barely made it to Penzance in 4 and a half hours?

Both cancelled tonight according to National Rail Enquiries

Due to the severe weather the following Night Riviera Sleeper services will be cancelled:​

• 21:45 Penzance to London Paddington
• 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance

Your ticket will be valid on Great Western Railway services on Friday 9 January.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Is there not a difference between the Hope Valley and the Netherlands

Indeed there is. There are no polders in the Hope Valley.

 

[gazthomas]

I can't believe Transport for Wales cancelled all Llandudno Junction - Llandudno shuttles from 3pm today. Absolutely no chance it will snow and the winds are in the high teens.

Cue my "Michael Fish" moment when I wake up tomorrow under a blanket of snow.

 

[mpthomson]

We are now just 3.5 hours ahead of the start of the Amber "Severe Weather Warning" covering the East Midlands. When was that warning last updated? Yesterday at 11.55 - 32 hours ahead of its start. We are invited to believe that the area at risk, the timing, and the severity are all unchanged despite the uncertainty period having reduced by a factor of ten.

Severe Weather Warnings are quite a powerful tool for the Met Office to wield. While the railways may base decisions on more granular (and more up-to-date) information, I am pretty sure that many other decisions are being made on the basis of the Met Office warnings alone - cancellations of hospital operations, closure of schools.

I have remonstrated with the Met Office that once they decide to issue a Severe Weather Warning, they need to keep it updated to reflect the newest information on where the trouble is going to be, when, and how severe.

They explain that it takes a lot of work to decide the parameters of a Severe Weather Warning, so it would be unreasonable to expect them to keep updating it.

It may save them money this way, but the lost productivity from inappropriate decisions based on substantially out-of-date forecasts must surely be far larger.

I’m sure they’ll have taken it on board…

I feel like this should be fairly obvious, that should be the priority for Network Rail with all of the talk on climate change. If you really want the railways to be taken seriously as a reliable option for people to trust with getting to and from places then any measure to be more resilient should be welcomed.


It was an exaggeration maybe, but particularly the Buxton (aside from Buxton itself in the amber) and Hadfield/Glossop lines lie majority within the yellow area. Atleast TfGM has come to some sense with Northern and allowed ticket acceptance on the 237 and 341, so theoretically buses replacing trains between Guide Bridge and Hadfield/Glossop is an option, but one the railway is uninterested in taking. It's cheaper for the railways to give up evidently, as we all saw last time when Northern cut all routes towards Lancaster and Morecambe with no real valid reason and did not provide any form of replacement travel because the best interests of rail passengers are always secondary.

They’re currently in the Amber area and have been all day…

 

[Royston Vasey]

West Midlands Railway services have deteriorated across the West Midlands this evening.

• Overhead Line issues between Wolverhampton - Shrewsbury
• Points failure in the Wolverhampton area
• Multiple points failures across the Snow Hill line

The wires at Shrewsbury seem to have been completely blown away in fact!

 

[mpthomson]

That's not the point at all here. It's about general organisational capability and ethos during bad weather events. And the network might be at different AODs but the challenge is exactly the same......heavy snowfall and strong winds forming deep drifts and frozen points and OLE. I'll bet the snow in Leeuwarden or Groningen is at least as deep as anything we get here and the temperatures far lower. BUT THEY'RE RUNNING A SERVICE.

It’s absolutely the point. The topographical considerations and relative remoteness are entirely different apart from a very small part of the Netherlands…

 

[Sleepy]

Both cancelled tonight according to National Rail Enquiries

Due to the severe weather the following Night Riviera Sleeper services will be cancelled:​

• 21:45 Penzance to London Paddington
• 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance

Your ticket will be valid on Great Western Railway services on Friday 9 January.

Sleepers advertised as cancelled this morning.

 

[Freemo]

Indeed there is. There are no polders in the Hope Valley.

I'd love some bitterballen and a tripel right now mind.

 

[Amos390]

A lot of services out of Notts now cut off too, most regional ones to my understanding

 

[CHAPS2034]

• Overhead Line issues between Wolverhampton - Shrewsbury
• Points failure in the Wolverhampton area
• Multiple points failures across the Snow Hill line

The wires at Shrewsbury seem to have been completely blown away in fact!

There are, of course, wires on the Wolverhampton - Shrewsbury line as far as Oxley....

 

[EveningStar]

220 late. It's made it to Camborne. The passenger being taken ill at Saltash certainly exacerbated the delay. No doubt the service would have made it to Penzance and avoided the worst of the storm. Local Radio Reporting many trees down around the county. Wouldn't be surprised if a few trees fell down on lines tonight as well. Also, High tide due in Penzance soon. the driver of 1C80 should be given a reward for his efforts tonight.

See 1C80 got to Penzance 231 minutes down. Kudos to the driver for what must have been a tough job done safely.

 

[Lewisham2221]

The Marches line currently closed Shrewsbury - Hereford due to heavy snowfall

 

[dk1]

So lucky here in the East with Greater Anglia saying there are no issues to report so far and no expectations to cancel services this evening or tomorrow unless anything unforeseen happens.

 

[Sentinel]

You couldn’t make it up… screenshot off Real time trains …

 

[irish_rail]

The wind in Plymouth is pretty much the strongest I've experienced. Hope and pray that the service that is running through Devon (albeit at max 50mph) make it through safely. It seems the brunt of the storm has been further east (ie St Austell to Plymouth) .not the far West as predicted. 82mph wind gust reported in Plymouth, Penzance managing a mere 76mph!

 

[Bow Fell]

Everytime, RTT error as usual giving poor reasons which are then misinterpreted far too often.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

You couldn’t make it up… screenshot off Real time trains …

It has been said plenty of times in the past, but RTT uses its own interpretations of the delay codes.
Code X4 is (as per the Open Rail Data Wiki) for

Blanket speed restriction or Key Route Strategy implemented in accordance with Group Standards or other national operational safety instruction

 

[yorkie]

You couldn’t make it up… screenshot off Real time trains …

Real time trains makes things like this up or misses out key parts; you cannot rely on that website for delay reasons.

It's cropped up many times before, e.g.:

It was explained in the storm Isha thread:

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

Early shutdown on the AWC Manchester to Euston route with last services around 5pm. There’s also a 50mph speed restriction on for quite large chunks of the route. Ditto Wolverhampton. All the evening services out of Euston are cancelled.

www.railforums.co.uk

"RTT error, code X4 is : Blanket speed restriction for extreme heat or high wind in accordance with the Group Standards"

(my bold)

RTT summarises that code but only mentions the heat option.

By the way, please edit your post, to include a text alternative. We are committed to making this forum as accessible as possible for everyone (including blind people). Thanks

 

[trundlewagon]

West Midlands Railway services have deteriorated across the West Midlands this evening.

Tree down on the Cross City south, just for a change.

Death, taxes, fallen trees on the Cross City.

 

[Express380]

220 late. It's made it to Camborne. The passenger being taken ill at Saltash certainly exacerbated the delay. No doubt the service would have made it to Penzance and avoided the worst of the storm. Local Radio Reporting many trees down around the county. Wouldn't be surprised if a few trees fell down on lines tonight as well. Also, High tide due in Penzance soon. the driver of 1C80 should be given a reward for his efforts tonight.

100% Huge credit to them and also the onboard crew.

 

[Meole]

• Overhead Line issues between Wolverhampton - Shrewsbury
• Points failure in the Wolverhampton area
• Multiple points failures across the Snow Hill line

The wires at Shrewsbury seem to have been completely blown away in fact!

Trains turning at Telford.

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Not sure if the Snow Hill lines points failure is to do with the storm or not, but 1R53 and 1J55 (1807 & 1837 ex Marylebone) are currently sat at Dorridge, and have been for at least two hours. 1R58 (1906 ex MYB) is sat at Leamington too, on P2. XC 1M88 is approaching so that’ll probably have to skip Lem. 1M78 not far behind. 1J65 is 56 minutes late near Gerrards X and stuck behind an Aylesbury stopper. Wonder how tomorrow will go for Chiltern.