Woman injured and trains cancelled as Storm Henk strikes London

Strong winds brought down scaffolding in Deptford

A woman was taken to hospital by air ambulance after being hit by a tree brought down as Storm Henk hit south-east London on Tuesday.

The incident occurred at Station Approach, Orpington. Her injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

As the storm took hold, London Fire Brigade (LFB) said it responded to 30 incidents.

These included incidents of trees, scaffolding, roof tiles, solar panels and roofing being brought down.

On Wednesday, commuters were told to allow extra time to travel as train services recover from the storm's impact.

A tree blown over in Tooting, south-west London

Network Rail told passengers to expect delays across the Southern, Gatwick Express, Great Northern and Thameslink network until noon.

It said people should allow an extra hour if they planned to travel between London Kings Cross and Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

Some services between London and Cambridge were also expected to be cancelled due to "train stock being misplaced by the damage caused by the weather".

• Strong winds from Storm Henk batters parts of UK

• Danger to life flood warning as Storm Henk hits

Thousands of would-be passengers at Waterloo station

Analysis: Tom Edwards, BBC London transport correspondent

There isn't much you can do for transport infrastructure when storms like Henk hit.

You can't run trains and keep roads open when trees and trampolines are scattered across tracks and bridges.

It is extremely dangerous and can lead to collisions and derailments. Taking action then is probably too late.

However you can take action before the storm.

Previously train operators have run reduced services before storms have hit so existing services are more resilient and can recover quickly in the aftermath.

"Do not travel" messages were only put out at 16:00 GMT on Tuesday and by then the network was full of passengers.

You do perhaps get the impression - and of course it is easy to say this in hindsight - that Storm Henk caught many on the hop and its speed and impact was much worse than expected.

Forecasts on its severity changed quite quickly through the day.

Thousands of stranded passengers having to book their own taxis showed something wasn't right.

Transport organisations usually review any large scale incident and I'm sure how they reacted will now be looked at. They have a very difficult job balancing between being too cautious and too bullish. Often they are criticised whatever they do.

More broadly, with climate change making severe weather more common, this is something we will all have to get used to.

The storm brought severe travel disruption with train services between London Paddington and south Wales diverted on Tuesday because of flooding between Swindon and Bristol Parkway.

One family was among crowds at Waterloo station on Tuesday evening when trains were cancelled because of fallen trees. They were advised to get a taxi to their destination, Winchester, and claim the fare back.

South Western Railwaysaid at the time: "Due to widespread disruption caused by the extreme weather, our customers are authorised to book their own taxi to travel anywhere across the South Western Railway network."

National Rail said an electricity failure between London Paddington and Maidenhead meant some lines were impassable, with services between Paddington and Reading disrupted or cancelled.

Train operator Avanti West Coast said on X, formerly Twitter, overhead lines between Watford Junction and London Euston had been damaged.

Southern Rail said it enforced speed restrictions of 40mph (64km/h) on many routes south of London.

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