UK weather: weekend travel misery looms amid rain warnings and strikes | UK news

After a week in which Britain has been hit by record temperatures and thunderstorms, heavy rainfall could now bring flooding and further travel disruption.

East Midlands Trains customers have been warned to expect a significantly reduced service to and from London due to repair work on damaged overhead line equipment and a revised timetable on several local routes because of RMT industrial action.

Customers have also been told to check before heading out on their journeys and not to travel on the London St Pancras-Nottingham-Sheffield route as there will be a reduced timetable.

It comes after air passengers suffered major disruption on Friday due to the heatwave and a technical problem with the UK’s air traffic control system. Passengers using Heathrow and Gatwick airports had to contend with delays due to the extreme conditions across Europe. A Heathrow spokesman said the technical issue had now been resolved.

Now a yellow weather warning for rain, covering Angus, Dundee, Fife, Perth and Kinross plus the Grampian region in Scotland, is in place, the Met Office said.

Heavy rainfall could be bring flooding overnight, travel disruption and a slight chance of power cuts as accumulations of 20-30mm are likely, with as much as 50mm in places.

The weather warning is extended for Sunday to alert the public that swathes of Scotland and England, with the exception of the South West region, could be hit by heavy rain.

The Met Office warning states: “Accumulations of 40-60mm are possible, with perhaps as much as 80-100mm in places, especially over high ground.”

It could see delays or cancellations to train and bus services.

An East Midlands Trains spokesman said that the ongoing disruption to services on the Midland Main Line route to London would continue over the weekend while engineers repair major damage to overhead line equipment near West Hampstead.

Managing director Jake Kelly said: “We’re sorry to everybody who has experienced disrupted journeys over the past two days.

“We are working very closely with Network Rail while they work to repair the overhead line equipment and fully reopen the railway, which will in turn allow us to reintroduce our full train service to and from London St Pancras.”

He said due to the rail strike there would be changes to services on local routes, with revised timetables.