TRAIN services in Scotland and England are becoming increasingly disrupted, as the early wintry weather tightens its grip.

There is a general warning of possible delays and cancellations on all ScotRail routes. The key service between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh has been halved in frequency to half-hourly, and there is no service between the two cities via Shotts, or between Stirling and Dunblane. Services have also been cancelled or reduced on a number of lines in the lowlands with no trains to Dunbar or Larkhall, among others.

ScotRail said it would be providing replacement buses where it could, but this will depend on road conditions.

Services in England are being affected by the weather as well. East Coast  has reduced its London to Leeds service, and many other trains are being delayed, particularly north of Newcastle.

Northern has cancelled all trains to Whitby until further notice, because of weather conditions on the North Yorkshire moors.

In Cornwall, there are still no trains between Par and Newquay, after the recent floods caused an embankment to collapse near Luxulyan. Network Rail is hoping to complete the repairs within the next two weeks.

Although some areas have yet to see much snow, temperatures plummeted overnight, with track temperatures as low as minus 6 Celsius in parts of southern England.

Network Rail has been deploying additional resources to combat the weather this winter, including 3,000 new conductor rail heaters in Kent.

The forecasters are predicting that conditions will worsen over the next couple of days, with the snow expected to push south to affect most of England and Wales by Tuesday morning.