Storm Goretti causes travel disruption

Rail passengers have have been urged to check the weather before they travel as Storm Goretti brings disruption to the region.

Network Rail said services may be affected as a result of the amber weather warning for snow and rain issued by the Met Office.

East Midlands Railway (EMR) and Network Rail started to close down services on branch lines from 20:00 GMT on Thursday.

Some services running to Birmingham New Street and London Euston, which run through Northampton station, have been cancelled on Friday.

Dan Matthews, Network Rail's operations director, said: "In more remote parts of our network we're anticipating the storm impact on roads will mean that our own staff will struggle to reach signal boxes and, potentially, to respond to incidents on the railway as they normally would.

"As a result, we and our colleagues in EMR have taken the difficult decision to remove late evening and early morning services.

"We're really sorry for the impact which this will have on these communities but the safety and wellbeing of passengers and our own teams must come first."

Commuters at Northampton Railway station told the BBC their journeys had been affected by the snow.

Bernadette Martins, from Northampton, was trying to get to London and had been booked on a 08:10 bus that was cancelled.

She changed her plans and booked a train and was hoping she "will make the trip".

When she saw last night's snow she was "scared" but was pleased it had now mostly gone.

Samson, who was on his way to London, said the first train he wanted to catch was cancelled.

He said services were "severely disrupted", leaving him to wonder if he would be home on time.

Meanwhile, Guilsborough Academy in Northampton was closed due to health and safety concerns related to the weather.

West Northamptonshire Council confirmed rubbish collections in the Daventry area were being run on a limited service due to reduced staffing levels.

It asked people to leave their bins out with "catch-up collections" due on Monday.

Edward Greenaway, an arable farmer based near Crick, on the Northamptonshire-Warwickshire border, spent this morning clearing roads in the village.

He rescued a lorry that had got stuck and cleared the snow out the from cul-de-sacs where it had settled.

"It's just a natural habit to go and help people out. We just do it for the love of the community," he said.

Allan Rigby, general manager for contractors Kier for North and West Northamptonshire, said 20 vehicles has been out gritting.

"We prepared for the worst and made sure we got the salt down to prepare the network, " he said.

He said as temperatures were due to drop to -4 C (24.8F) the county's roads would be treated from about 13:00 but he does not expect anymore snow.

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