[13
DEC 00]
RAILTRACK NEWS
Terrible Weather Lashes The Area
BY
ANTONY
HOPKER
High
winds and lashing rain caused destruction and chaos in Coventry and
Warwickshire last night.
Gusts
of up to 60 mph set burglar alarms off all over the area and caused
trees to fall down.
The
biggest problem of the night came on the trains when power lines were
blown down on the West Cost mainline just over the Northamptonshire
border.
Contractors
tried to deal with the damage, but were beaten back by the winds.
Michelle
Conaboy from Railtrack said a stretch covering a quarter of a mile had
been damaged.
Services
to and from London were being reduced today as engineers battled to
carry out repairs, and there is the risk that the line might have to
be closed.
Virgin
trains have been cut back to one an hour, while Silverlink services
are only running between Milton Keynes and London, with a bus services
taking passengers to Coventry and Rugby.
The
environment agency increased the number of severe flood warnings in
the Midlands. The Severn is worst affected, but there is also concern
about the levels of the Leam and the Avon.
Police
in Warwickshire said there were a lot of weather-related calls, but no
reports of people being injured or crashes being caused by the poor
conditions.
Newbold
Street in Leamington was closed last night after a plank blew off
scaffolding at the Newbold Tavern pub at 10.30pm.
It
smashed a car window and police closed the road in case any more
debris fell into the street.
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