Passengers have been left stranded on a train in Lockerbie with no food, water or power after Storm Babet caused a tree to collapse onto overhead cables.

The Transpennine service from Manchester to Glasgow Central was forced to turn back after wires were downed, with passengers on board reporting ambulances may have to be called for vulnerable people.

Passenger Simon Ridley Thomas, a business development manager, told The Herald: "I started with Transpennine in Manchester, and we were thrown off the train at Lancaster and told to wait there and then get on to an Avanti which would take us to Glasgow Central.

“Then they threw us off at Carlisle, and said ‘that’s not going anymore you’ve got to get on a different Transpennine.

“We got on that at around 2pm and it had just gone through Lockerbie at around 20mph when they said we were going back to the station because there was a tree on the line and here we still are with no food, no water, no lights, no information – hundreds of us.

“They (Transpennine) said there were five buses coming, then the ScotRail staff said there were not five buses coming – there are no buses coming because they can’t get any.

“So then they said to get back on the train, and we’re still just sitting waiting.

“They say they can’t turn the power on because it will run the train batteries down on the train.

“There are lots of people here with problems, there’s one guy who is going to Bellshill and needs insulin before 8pm. They’re talking about calling an ambulance for him.

“There’s a young girl who is 15 with a granny who’s got Alzheimer's and was losing the plot. There’s no water, no food: nothing. It’s unbelievable.

"There’s no plan at all, nothing.

“We’ve been here since at least 3pm and it’s after 6pm now. We’re just sitting in the dark with no information, and Lockerbie doesn’t have a lot to it.

“We’re at the station now, they’ve got most of the doors locked there are one or two open. People are just sitting in the dark, no power, phones going down and that sort of thing.

“Most people here were chucked off the train and there are a lot of people who I recognise who got chucked off in Lancaster as well.

“A storm is a storm but it’s the fact they’ve just said nothing."

An update issued by Network Rail Scotland said: "At Nethercleugh, near Lockerbie, on the West Coast Mainline, a tree has been blown over and pulled down our overhead cables.

"We're working hard to clear the fallen tree from the West Coast Main Line near Lockerbie, it's going to take a significant amount of time unfortunately due to its size and the damage its caused to our overhead wires."

Adam Fairclough, Head of Customer Experience for TransPennine Express, said: “Due to the severe weather that Storm Babet has brought across the North of England and Scotland, TransPennine Express services between Manchester/Liverpool and Scotland via Preston have been subject to delays and cancellations due to a tree that had fallen on the railway line, causing damage to the overhead wires. That obstruction has now been cleared, however, disruption to services is expected to last until the end of the day.

“We’d like to sincerely apologise to any customer that has been caught up in this incident, and I’d urge anyone who was travelling with us on that service to get in touch with our Customer Relations team.

“We’re continuing to advise people not to travel on this route for the rest of the day and that if they have a ticket dated for Friday 20 October, that it will be valid on TransPennine Express services until Tuesday 23 October. Customers are also advised to check before they travel.”