TRAINS between England and Scotland have been stopped for seven hours due to damage caused by Storm Ali.

Strong winds have caused problems to overhead electric wires on the East Coast mainline and the West Coast mainline means that services between Preston and Scotland have been unable to run since 2pm, Network Rail have confirmed.

National Rail, which put out an alert about the problems at 8.30pm has also said that buses are unavailable to deal with the disruption on the West Coast line and have urged people with journeys north of Preston to postpone them as soon as possible.

The alert which was first put out at 12.28pm but updated at 8.30pm say that the problems on the West Coast mainline are expected to continue till 7am on Thursday.

High winds have resulted in fallen trees and speed restrictions throughout the day, affecting Caledonian Sleeper, TransPennine Express and Virgin Trains service.

National Rail said: "Multiple fallen trees and power outages between Preston and Scotland are disputing trains.

"Trains are also expected to be affected on Thursday.

"Trains are currently unable to run between Preston and Scotland. Buses are also unavailable.

"We recommend customers with journeys north of Preston postpone their journey if possible."

The National Rail alert said that trains throughout the West Coast Main Line had been subject to delays of up to two hours. 

National Rail have not provided further details about the East Coast disruption.

But at around 2pm, Network Rail said overhead line damage between Berwick upon Tweed and Newcastle had led to all trains on the east coast mainline between Newcastle and Edinburgh being suspended.