Flooding cancels Eurostar trains as snow and ice Met Office warnings issued – live

All homes that lost power as Storm Gerrit lashed Scotland have now been reconnected, bosses at power firm SSEN have confirmed.

The electricity provider said its teams had worked through “particularly challenging conditions” to restore supplies to more than 48,000 homes.

A final push by staff saw the last properties without electricity reconnected by 11pm on Friday, with customers in parts of Aberdeenshire, Perthshire and The Great Glen area in the Highlands all now with power again.

Andy Smith, SSEN distribution’s operations director, said the storm had brought “serious disruption” with gale force winds having reached recorded speeds of 86mph in Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire and 84mph in Lerwick, Shetland.

Completion of work to restore electricity supplies comes ahead of the latest weather alert, with a yellow warning for rain and snow having been issued for much of Scotland on Saturday.

As a result of that Network Rail Scotland said speed restrictions will be in place on the West Highland Lines from 10am today until 9am on Sunday.

Eurostar has had to cancel all of their services from London today after a tunnel was flooded.

Thousands of passengers have been left stranded amid the chaos. If you are one of those passengers, here are your options:

• Exchange your booking for free to travel at a different time or date, in the same travel class.

• Cancel your booking and claim an e-voucher. You will have 12 months from the date of your cancelled train to redeem it on eurostar.com

• Cancel your booking and get a refund. You’ll receive a refund for the value of your ticket, but not for any booking or exchange fees. We’ll process your request within 28 days.

You have three months from the date you were due to travel to claim your preferred option.

Nicole Carrera, 29, and her husband Christopher, 31, were due to catch a train from London St Pancras International to Paris on Saturday morning but it was cancelled due to flooding.

They have had to rebook for a 2.30pm outbound train on Sunday, scuppering their plans to spend New Year’s Eve at the theme park and leaving them out of pocked for a non-refundable hotel booked in Paris for Saturday evening.

Ms Carrera, who works for cosmetics firm L’Oréal, told the PA news agency: “We actually got married in October and we had this trip planned before we got engaged… we planned this trip because we’ve always wanted to come to London/Paris. We were going to Paris, for like, around the holiday season because, you know, the cities are nice during the holidays and we had never been, it was on our list of places to travel and we just wanted to come visit.

“So we’ve been in London since Wednesday and we wanted to leave today because we were actually supposed to go to Disney Paris tomorrow for New Year’s Eve.

“So obviously those plans our ruined because now we won’t get into Paris tomorrow until about 6pm. So we’re just going to walk around the city (Paris) tomorrow when we get there and finally get to our hotel. It’s just one of those things.”

She added: “We go to Disney in the States all the time in Florida so we were like, we might as well go while we’re there, what a better way to celebrate New Year’s, like, there’s so many things to do.”

High Speed 1 (HS1), which runs the link from London St Pancras International to the Channel Tunnel, has now issued a statement about the disruption.

An HS1 spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, travel on the HS1 line is currently suspended due to flooding in the Thames Tunnel. Engineers have been working throughout the night to remove the water and continue to do so.

Pumps and tankers are on site and water levels are reducing but the volume of water in the tunnel is unprecedented.

“We understand how frustrating this is for passengers and apologise for the inconvenience caused at such an important time of the year. We are doing everything we can to restore services as quickly as possible and advise all passengers to check with their operator before travelling.”

Engineers are aiming to reduce water levels enough to allow them to assess the track and decide whether trains can safely run through the tunnel at reduced speeds.

Eurostar and Southeastern services from London have been cancelled “until the end of the day” as heavy rain and strong winds threaten to spoil people’s new year plans.

No high-speed services are expected to run between Ebbsfleet International and London St Pancras International today because a tunnel under the Thames is flooded.

The flooding is also disrupting Southeastern Railway trains which run on the route, the operator said.

Eurostar, which runs services from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, apologised to customers for the impact to their travel plans.

Posting on X, Southeastern Railway said: “We will be running no highspeed services for the entirety of today due to flooding in the tunnels at Ebbsfleet.

“No trains will run between Ashford and St Pancras, or between Gravesend and St Pancras. Please use alternative routes.”

Thousands of passengers are stranded at St Pancras International this morning as all Eurostar and Southeastern trains have been cancelled.

Flooding occurred in both railway tunnels near Ebbsfleet International station in southeastern England, meaning both tunnels are closed.

No trains will be able to run between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet until the flood has been cleared. Eurostar trains have been cancelled until at least midday and Southeastern have warned disruption is expected all day.

All Eurostar and Southeastern high-speed trains are currently cancelled due to flooding in the Thames tunnel on Saturday (30 December).

The Independent’s travel journalist Simon Calder said: “It’s absolute carnage here and New Year travel chaos mounts.”

Flooding has occurred in both railway tunnels near Ebbsfleet International, meaning both tunnels are closed.

This means no trains can run between London St Pancras International and Ebbsfleet International. Disruption is expected until 12 noon.

These are the current scenes at London’s St Pancras International:

Here’s the Met Office’s latest forecast for today, which says large parts of the UK can expect frosty conditions with lots of rain:

The Met Office has issued six weather warnings across most of the UK for ice, snow, wind and rain as Brits face a New Year’s weekend of extreme weather.

Most of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and large parts of southern England have been told by the forecasters to expect travel disruption, power cuts and flooding.

The last warning for wind in southern England is expected to remain in place until the early hours of Sunday morning.

St Pancras International is reportedly ‘in chaos’ as passengers face major major cancellations this morning.

Southeastern and Eurostar trains were cancelled this morning due to flooding in tunnels near Ebbsfleet International in southeast England.

The Independent’s Travel Correspondent Simon Calder is currently at the station and said the travel hub was “in chaos”.