Millions are being told only to travel if absolutely necessary this rush hour as Storm Franklin moves in.
The UK is being hit by its third named storm of the week, bringing yet more gale force winds.
Wales, Northern Ireland, most of England and parts of Scotland are under weather warnings throughout the morning.
National Rail has asked people to ‘avoid travel if possible’ as train services are expected to be paralysed by high winds.
The arrival of another powerful weather front prolongs the chaos on Britain’s rail networks.
Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice, which arrived within 48 hours of each other, caused widespread damage to tracks around the country.
Several rails services are still not back to full working order because of downed trees and other debris blocking lines.
A National Rail spokesperson said: ‘Please check before you travel if you plan to use train services today or on Monday.
‘The poor weather conditions may cause flooding, and any trees already weakened by Storm Eunice may fall down.
‘Where conditions worsen, speed restrictions could be put in place to ensure you can travel safely.’
The Met Office has issued an amber warning for wind, meaning there is a ‘risk to life’, covering Northern Ireland until 7am.
A milder yellow warning is in place for most fo England, Wales and southwest Scotland from noon until 1pm
Meteorologist Becky Mitchell said this is the first time the national forecaster has recorded three major storms in such quick succession since the naming system was introduced seven years ago.
She said: ‘This is the first time we have had three named storms within a week, and we started the storm naming system in 2015.
‘At the moment we’ve got a really active jet stream, which is why we’re seeing so many storms track right towards the UK’
Cross Country was among the rail firms directly appealing to customers not to use their tickets this morning.
A spokesperson said: ‘We are strongly recommending not to travel today. Storms over the past week will have tested the infrastructure and with Storm Franklin today, we will have severe disruption across our network.’
Southeastern is running a reduced timetable, while East Midlands Railway ‘expected most routes’ to be impacted, with services between Sheffield and Liverpool cancelled altogether.
Environment agencies have issued hundreds of alerts for flooding across the UK, including two rare ‘severe’ warnings where rainfall could also pose a ‘danger to life’.
Didsbury and Northenden in the North West are both at risk of being inundated, with evacuations already under way as of Sunday afternoon in the former.
Which rails companies are expecting delays today?
The following train operating companies will be affected, according to Network Rail:
- Avanti West Coast
- c2c
- Caledonian Sleeper
- Chiltern Railway
- CrossCountry
- East Midlands Railway
- Great Northern
- Great Western Railway
- Greater Anglia
- Heathrow Express
- London Northwestern Railway
- LNER
- Northern
- ScotRail
- Southeastern
- Southern
- South Western Railway
- Stansted Express
- Thameslink
- TransPennine Express
- Transport for Wales
- West Midlands Railway
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