NORTH Yorkshire's transport network was still struggling to recover from gale damage today.

Stretches of the A1 remained closed as police cleared up after a spate of collisions.

Nine lorries were blown over on the roady, with one incident resulting in the death of a driver between Catterick and Leeming. Across Northern England and Scotland, seven people died in gusting winds of up to 90mph.

On the trains, passengers were hit by delays today as engineers strove to repair damage to a power line near Doncaster.

In York, British Transport Police also launched a clean-up operation after a 50ft sheet of roofing was blown off a building near the city's railway station. No one was hurt, although several cars sustained slight damage.

Today, three motorists escaped with slight injuries after two lorries blew over on the A1 southbound near Skeeby, Richmond, North Yorkshire. A car then collided with one of the trucks, forcing the closure of the road.

Another lorry fell on to a car after tipping over on the A1 north of Boroughbridge, although no one was hurt.

Cars were damaged at York's supermarkets as high winds buffeted loose trolleys across parking areas.

Tens of thousands of homes across Northern England and Scotland were left without electricity, as the winds blew down power lines.

Meanwhile, rail passengers last night endured a journey from hell as high winds blew down electricity cables.

Passengers on the GNER London to Glasgow service had to stay in hotels in Newcastle after a train was stranded for five hours just north of the city, and then slowly pulled back into the station.

Yvonne Gordon, 33, from Edinburgh, who had been visiting her sister in York, said the situation was "chaotic", with passengers scrambling for hotel rooms with little information being supplied by rail operators.

Miss Gordon said: "We got off the train at Newcastle... then they told everyone to go to the Station Hotel, and it was like a war zone. There must have been about 200 people in the foyer with just three or four train staff.

"We managed to get a room at the hotel, but we are not sure if we are going to get reimbursed."

A GNER spokesman said: "It was a very difficult day for passengers on the rail network, especially north of Newcastle. We tried to provide as much information as we could, given that the situation was changing hour by hour."

Updated: 11:35 Tuesday, January 29, 2002