Section of M74 closed after lorries blown over during Storm Bram

A section of the main motorway linking Scotland and England remains closed southbound after reports of multiple lorries being blown over during Storm Bram.

Traffic Scotland said the M74 was shut between junctions 12 and 13 near Abington in South Lanarkshire overnight but the northbound carriageway had now reopened. Drivers travelling south face a diversion involving a minor road.

Drivers reported on social media seeing several HGVs on their sides. Police Scotland said a recovery operation was ongoing and no-one was injured.

The second named storm of the season also caused problems for rail travellers with fallen trees and damaged overhead cables, and at least 1,000 properties lost power.

Network Rail said repairs had been made to a damaged overhead cable on the Glasgow-Neilston route and the line would reopen once an affected train had been returned to the depot.

One train was struck by a trampoline that blew onto the railway line south of Perth on Tuesday evening, but it was able to continue its journey.

Fallen trees and branches had to be removed from a number of lines, but it said almost all of the rail network was open, albeit with some speed restrictions.

ScotRail warned travellers that the resumption of some Wednesday services would be delayed as lines had to be checked for obstacles.

West Highland line services between Glasgow, Oban and Mallaig and services between Inverness and Kyle of Lochalsh were facing the biggest disruption.

Some flights into Glasgow and Edinburgh were cancelled and diverted during the storm, with services to the capital from London City still affected.

Roads agency Bear Scotland said its teams had been working through the night clearing fallen trees that had affected the A9 at Cambusavie and the A84 south of Loch Lubnaig.

Storm Bram, named by the Irish weather service Met Éireann, prompted an amber alert for much of north west Scotland.

The rest of the country apart from most southern parts are still covered by a yellow warning for high winds, and high winds could still affect the Northern Isles.

At its height, gusts of 76mph were recorded on South Uist in the Western Isles with similar speeds also felt in Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway.

Some homes and businesses were left without power with SSEN’s website showing about 1,000 customers affected by outages in various areas north of the central belt.

SP Energy Networks said its engineers were also working to restore supplies to some customers in the south of the country.

The storm was accompanied by heavy rain in many areas, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued 19 flood warnings – mainly in Tayside and southern Scotland – as well as 15 flood alerts.