TRAIN travellers found services severely delayed or cancelled in the freezing conditions – and then the replacement buses were cancelled too.

John and Nancy Coppock missed their 12.30pm flight from Bournemouth Airport as they tried to spend Christmas with a friend in Geneva.

Two trains from London were cancelled and they then had to transfer to a bus at Southampton. “Maybe we can get a flight tomorrow but I don’t know,” said John as he arrived at noon.

All services between Weymouth and Southampton were either cancelled or severely delayed until mid day, and a full service was not resumed until around 4pm.

A bus replacement service between Eastleigh and Bournemouth was suspended on police advice and a limited train service with delays ran between Weymouth and Bournemouth.

Clare Skevington, 40, from Weymouth, said: “It took my friend three hours to get from Weymouth to Bournemouth.”

Taxi drivers said desperate passengers asked to be driven to as far away as London and Oxford.

Bob, a 58-year-old taxi driver from Boscombe, who declined to give his surname, said: “I had to turn down Southampton Airport and Dorchester because it was just too dangerous.

“In my 40 years as a taxi driver I have never had to deal with conditions like this.”

The Hurn measuring station recorded an overnight low of -5.8C and the temperature did not rise above 0C until 10am.

The morning rain was freezing on the railway lines and blocking the current between the electric rail and the train.

The full service was resumed by around 4pm.

A South West trains spokesman said: “We believe the warmer weather conditions will allow us to run a full service on Christmas Eve.”