City partially cut off as flash floods cripple road and rail

Trains from the city to Shipley, Skipton, Keighley and Ilkley were cancelled because of flooding at Kirkstall. Other services were delayed and some roads out of the city centre were briefly gridlocked as commuters took to their cars.

The Environment Agency opened incident rooms in Leeds and York as river levels continued to rise. Leeds City Council said the River Aire was expected to peak at midnight last night with the prospect of local tributaries flooding.

Two flood warnings were in place in Yorkshire, with a further 21 flood alerts issued by the Environment Agency.

The warnings were issued for Brompton Beck, near Northallerton, and Naburn Lock on the River Ouse, near York.

Network Rail did not respond to a request for comment last night. National Rail Enquiries issued a short statement which said: “Flooding is causing disruption near Leeds. Because of this, there are no trains between Leeds and Ilkley, Leeds and Shipley” but services later resumed, subject to delays.

Services operated by Northern Rail on the Airedale and Wharfedale lines were worst-hit, although there were also delays to some East Coast and Cross Country services.

Meanwhile, Northern blamed a signalling problem caused by cable theft for separate delays of up to an hour to trains between Sheffield, Doncaster and Leeds.

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