Rail passengers warned of disruption as Storm Boelo batters the UK with 80mph winds

Rail passengers travelling from London to Scotland and northern England have been warned to expect disruption this weekend as Storm Boelo brings winds of up to 80mph to parts of the UK.

While London and the South East are expected to avoid the worst conditions after Friday's Storm Austen, holidaymakers and weekend travellers heading north by train could face delays, cancellations and speed restrictions.

National Rail has urged passengers to check before they travel, with several operators warning of disruption.

Avanti West Coast is advising customers to avoid travelling north of Preston on Sunday, while LNER is warning against journeys between Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

CrossCountry said services travelling to or from areas north of Newcastle will be subject to speed restrictions over the weekend, while TransPennine Express has advised against anything other than essential travel.

ScotRail has also warned of network-wide disruption from Saturday evening, with some services not running and others facing cancellations.

The Met Office said Storm Boelo could bring gusts of 60 to 70mph across a wide area, with winds locally exceeding 80mph in exposed locations.

Tom Morgan, a Met Office meteorologist, said the storm would bring “widespread travel disruption” across Scotland, as well as northern parts of England and Northern Ireland.

“With the strong winds, potentially gusts exceeding 80 miles per hour locally, there will be some widespread travel disruption,” he said.

“I’m expecting delays to ferry services, if not cancellations, perhaps some quite widespread impacts to travel on the railways and on the roads as well.”

The storm follows Storm Austen, which swept across southern England, Wales and the Channel Islands on Friday.

At one stage around 31,000 homes in the South West were left without power, while flights were cancelled and part of Brighton's historic West Pier collapsed into the sea.

The National Grid said engineers had restored electricity to more than 60,000 properties by Friday night, although hundreds of customers were still waiting to be reconnected on Saturday morning.

Despite the fresh bout of severe weather, forecasters said much of England and Wales could look forward to brighter and sunnier conditions on Sunday once Storm Boelo moves away.

For Londoners, the biggest impact is likely to be felt on the rail network, particularly for those travelling to Scotland, northern England or connecting ferry services over the weekend.