Flooding causes rail and road disruption after heavy rain

Floods closed an M25 slip road and have caused travel delays across the south east of England after a night of heavy rain.

Drivers were asked to find alternative routes in to London after National Highways said on X that the northbound entry slip road from the M25 at junction 10 (Guildford) was closed due to flooding.

Traffic monitoring site Inrix reported at 11:00 that the slip road had reopened.

There have been delays on trains due to the “severe weather” affecting the Gatwick Express, Southern and Thameslink services, Southern Railway said.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for rain from 05:00 BST until 23:59 on Monday across Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

A yellow rain warning means some communities may be cut off by flooded roads and possible power cuts, and loss of other services to some homes and businesses, according to the Met Office.

A flood warning is in place for Kidbrooke Stream at Forest Row, which was the site of flooding after heavy rainfall in August.

There have also been flood alerts for the River Rother and its tributaries from Turks Bridge to the Royal Military Canal in Kent and around the River Bourne, from Hadlow to East Peckham.

A flood alert was also in place in the area around Gatwick Airport from 08:00, covering surrounding towns and villages including Charlwood, Hookwood, Crawley and Horley.

An airport spokesperson said there were no issues at Gatwick on Monday morning.

Network Rail Kent and Sussex apologised to passengers for disruption to trains after flooding on the Hayes and Hastings lines.

In a post on X, Network Rail said: “At Wadhurst, the flooding has impacted signalling kit – the railway’s traffic lights – and we’ve got a flooded transformer which needs replacing.

“Our engineers are on site and working as fast as they can to get it fixed.”

Earlier issues with flooding at Lower Sydenham on the Hayes line had been cleared, Southeastern Railway said, and the line was running normally.

National Rail said disruption was expected until 09:00 on Gatwick Express, Southern and Thameslink services.

South Western Railway said lines had reopened following flooding at Walton-On-Thames, but that disruption was expected until 14:00.