GALES of up to 60mph caused misery for rail passengers trying to make their journey to work in the region this morning.

Trains travelling from Stratford to Birmingham Snow Hill were delayed by up to 30 minutes after gusts of up to 55mph knocked a tree onto a railway line at Wood End station, between Stratford and Shirley. Passengers were even roped into action to help clear the tracks.

A London Midland spokesman said Network Rail was dealing with a large number of incidents at the time and so the train crew and passengers worked together to shift the debris, which shut the line for 40 minutes.

Another tree was blown onto the line near Stourbridge Junction, causing rush hour delays, while Western Power Distribution confirmed around 6,000 properties in the Walsall area were left without power as debris damaged power lines in the early hours yesterday.

The power cut also affected traffic management signals on the M6. It forced the closure of the south-bound hard shoulder and caused rush hour queues to build up, between junctions 10A for Walsall and 10 for Essington.

And a clear-up operation got under way at around 12.30pm after the wind tipped a refuse lorry on the M6 by Coventry. Residents in Stone Road, Stafford, also reported winds ripping roof felting from their homes.

Meanwhile, further reports of trees crashing down onto roads came from Common Lane, Bednall, in Stafford, the A34 Queensway in Stafford town centre, Wrottesley Park Road in Perton near Wolverhampton, and Bromsgrove Road, Clent, near Stourbridge.

Ian Michaelwaite, from Netweather.TV, said: "Birmingham really has been battered by winds of late.

"Winds of 40mph with gusts of just shy of 55mph yesterday were bad enough, but would have felt considerably worse in Birmingham’s city centre streets. They came on the back of blustery weather earlier in the week that would have weakened trees, roofs and buildings first, meaning there was a greater chance of debris falling yesterday.

"But the winds faded as the day went on and that should continue today with possible winds of 30mph and gusts of up to 40mph. And it’ll continue to calm down as we go into the weekend, when the weather should be pretty good with maybe some light showers."

"And with temperatures around seven or eight degrees, it’s actually warmer than this time last year, when it was around five degrees, but the windchill has made it feel much colder this week."