An urgent travel warning has been issued as Storm Babet brings a heavy rain and flooding alert to much of the UK, including in Greater Manchester.
Extreme weather action teams are on standby to tackle any problems caused by the stormy weather along the West Coast main line, North West and Cumbrian rail routes over the coming days, including monitoring areas that could see flash flooding of the tracks or trees being blown down. With the storm set to intensify over the coming days, people living by the railway in the north west are also being advised to tether down any loose items in their gardens like furniture, fencing and trampolines which can be blown onto tracks by gale-force winds.
Heavy winds caused a tree to fall onto the tracks along the Glossop line in Broadbottom in Tameside on Wednesday with the line blocked for a number of hours.