Fallen trees cause road and rail travel chaos as strong winds batter …

FALLEN trees have caused travel chaos on the road and rail networks as strong winds and torrential rain lash the New Forest and Christchurch. A Met Office yellow weather warning is in place until 8pm tonight (Wednesday), with some areas seeing gusts of up to 60mph. The A35 was closed around 2pm from the Burley turn-off towards Christchurch after a tree came down between Lyndhurst and Holmsley.

South Western Railway train services were disrupted after lines were blocked between Lymington Pier and Brockenhurst and at Southampton Airport Parkway

Evening rush-hour train commuters are facing disruption as a result of trees having blocked lines.

One fell across the route between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier around 1pm.

Although the lines reopened around 2.30pm, South Western Railway warned services would be impacted until 7pm. The high winds have also seen a 50mph speed restriction enforced between Brockenhurst and Lymington among other routes. Around 1.20pm, SWR reported a tree was blocking the line at Southampton Airport Parkway.

The lines were reopened by 3pm, but disruption was expected to continue until 10pm.

Between 10am and 5pm trains running between London Waterloo and Weymouth did not stop at New Milton and Christchurch stations in both directions to minimise delays. Meanwhile, Wightlink announced around 3pm that all its cross-Solent ferries were still running on time despite the strong winds. The Wightlink Travel Twitter post said: “We appear to be through the worst part of the storm so we are confident our services should be fine for the rest of the day.

Updates will follow if anything changes.”