Winter train travel tips for Britain's railways

The most useful winter train travel tip is the simplest: check your train before you leave the house. Between October and March, Britain's railways have to deal with leaves on the line, frost, snow, ice, flooding and storms, and all of them slow trains down or cancel them outright. Know what's happening before you step outside, dress for a wait, and have a backup plan for the days when the weather wins.

Why does autumn cause so many delays?

Mostly, leaves. Wet leaves get crushed by train wheels into a thin, slippery layer on the rails, a bit like ice. Trains lose grip, so drivers have to brake earlier and pull away more gently, and timings slip.

Network Rail runs railhead treatment trains through the autumn, spraying the rails with high-pressure water to blast the mulch off, and some places get a gel with sand in it to help wheels grip. Some operators also run a special autumn timetable with slightly earlier departures to give drivers more time. If your train seems to have moved by a minute or two in October, that's often why.

Frost, snow and ice

Cold weather causes a different set of problems:

Points have heaters, and there are de-icing trains for the third rail lines, but a hard frost still catches the railway out. On the worst days operators may run a reduced timetable from the start, which is better than a full one that falls apart by mid-morning.

Storms, wind and flooding

High winds bring trees down onto the line and can force speed restrictions over wide areas. Heavy rain causes flooding and landslips. On the coast, the waves get involved: the line along the sea wall at Dawlish in Devon has been closed by storms before, most famously in February 2014 when the sea wall was breached.

During named storms, operators sometimes tell people not to travel at all. When they do, take it seriously. A train that leaves on time can still end up stuck behind a fallen tree. If you really have to go, allow plenty of extra time and keep checking for updates along the way.

Check before you leave, and keep checking

Make it a habit, the same as looking out of the window:

• Check National Rail Enquiries or your operator's app before you set off.
• Look for engineering works and station notices, which are common over Christmas and New Year.
• Check again just before you leave the house. Things change fast in bad weather.
• Know your alternatives: another route, a later train, or working from home.
• Sign up for your operator's disruption alerts if it offers them, so the bad news comes to you.

The national timetable changes twice a year, in May and December, so a train you've caught for months might shift a little after the December change. Worth checking once in early December even if the weather's fine. Over the holidays the railway runs a much thinner service, with no National Rail trains at all on Christmas Day, and our guide to trains on Christmas Day explains what to expect.

Keeping warm on the platform

Winter platforms are bleak. A few things help:

• Wear layers, a hat and gloves, and shoes with some grip for icy platforms and footbridges.
• Wait in the waiting room or the station building until the board shows your train.
• Carry a charged phone and a snack in case you're held somewhere for a while.
• Stand well back from the platform edge, especially when it's icy or fast trains are kicking up spray.

If your train is badly delayed, you can probably claim compensation. Most operators run Delay Repay, and our guide to why trains are delayed or cancelled explains the reasons you'll see on the board.

Seeing your train from the warm

On a dark, wet morning, the less time you spend on the platform the better. TrainTicker is an amber LED board for your hallway or kitchen that shows the next trains from your station, with expected times, cancellations and the reason given, plus station notices about engineering works and disruption. It reads Darwin, National Rail's live train information system, every 10 seconds.

Tell it how long your walk to the station takes and it hides the trains you can't catch, so you can time leaving the house to the minute. It dims itself between 10pm and 7am, too, which matters on long winter evenings. Try it with your station in the free demo, and see our tips on how to stop missing your train for the rest of your morning routine.