Gridlock: Planes, trains and motorways brought to a halt by a few inches snow... but how could this happen AGAIN?
By Ray Massey and Chris Brooke
Last updated at 2:26 AM on 2nd December 201
- M25 reduced to car park because snow fell before gritters got there
- Severe delays at airports with Gatwick shutting runway until 10am
- Half Eurostar services cancelled
- Thousands of children get day off school
Snow brought much of Britain to a standstill yesterday – and the question on everyone’s lips was ‘why?’.
The London orbital M25 – Britain’s busiest motorway – was among those reduced to a car park because snow fell before gritters treated the surface.
Trains were cancelled, airports shut and hundreds of thousands of children given a day off school as up to a foot of snow fell.
Stranded: Lorries were stuck on the M25 in Reigate, Surrey, yesterday after heavy snow. Motoring organisations say councils have failed to plan properly for winter
With millions caught up in the chaos, questions were mounting over the failure to treat the roads despite councils and the Highways Agency boasting they were prepared.
And forecasters warned of the big freeze tightening its grip for the rest of the week, with more snow on the way and temperatures expected to plunge as low as -25C.
The failure to prepare for the widely-forecast severe weather cost the economy at least £1.5billion yesterday in lost work. It saw:
■ Police warning drivers to travel only if it was ‘vital’ because roads were so dangerous;
■ Gatwick, the country’s second busiest airport, closed completely all day yesterday and unlikely to open this morning;
■ A third of all trains cancelled or delayed and commuters to parts of Kent left stranded for hours by frozen rails;
■ The key A1 and M1 routes to the North hit by jams and closures throughout the day and virtually every main road across the Pennines blocked;
■ A total of 700,000 children given the day off school despite promises that classes would stay open after February’s big freeze.
Home Counties areas including Eastern Surrey, Kent and even south-east London were hardest hit by the weather, along with Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Millions of workers arrived late or simply took a day off as the transport system collapsed.
Despite 3,300 gritters, new gritting technology and stockpiles of rock salt being replenished, most roads were simply not treated on time.
Lost in the white stuff: Motorists made slow progress as they attempted to drive through the centre of York
The failure prompted Transport Secretary Philip Hammond to order an urgent review of what went wrong. He warned there had been ‘complacency’ over planning for the big freeze.
‘I share the frustration of the travelling public and we need to be sure that we are doing everything possible to keep Britain moving,’ he said.
‘In extreme weather conditions some disruption is inevitable but there is no excuse for poor communication with passengers and motorists.’
Taking it easy: Cars and vans drive through the slushy centre of Guisborough, North Yorkshire
The review followed a similar crisis in February – when Britain ground to a halt in two weeks of freezing weather – which itself prompted a review.
On Tuesday the Highways Agency said it was ‘confident that the strategic road network’ would stay open.
‘We have 230,000 tons of salt and our fleet of 500 salt spreaders are operating day and night to keep the motorways and major A-roads open,’ said spokesman Mark Powell.
But yesterday the M25, M20, M23, M2, M3, M1, A1, A66, and A69 were among the vital motorways and trunk roads closed for all or part of the day.
As the chaos worsened, councils suggested it was the Government’s cuts which were to blame.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: ‘Most people in this country wouldn’t be willing to pay more council tax or see money diverted from other services to spend more on gritting.’
On Tuesday night at Orpington, Kent, parents with children were stranded on a train for more than ten hours.
Scores of passengers were forced to sleep in broken-down trains overnight after two trains became stuck in the snow, while passengers stranded at Gatwick faced the prospect of bedding down for another night in the terminal.
Grounded: Planes sit on the tarmac at Gatwick Airport which shut down yesterday
Any port in a storm: A passenger at Gatwick Airport finds somewhere to rest in the hand luggage area
The airport shut down with hundreds of flights cancelled after two runways became inoperable.
An airport spokesman said: 'We brought in extra people to try to clear the runway. We had a vast army of people, but as fast as they were clearing the snow, the quicker it settled again.'
The facility will remain shut until at least 6am at the 'very, very earliest'.
And passengers at Edinburgh Airport were also left stranded after it shut early because of the harsh weather.
Rail services around the country are also expected to be disrupted through today, with special timetables running in worst-hit areas.
A fifth of all trains were cancelled yesterday and at least a third were severely delayed – leading to the prospect of it being fined for its performance.
Southeastern trains services to Kent and East Sussex were reduced to a fraction of their normal level and hundreds of thousands of regular passengers were unable to get to work. Buses which were ordered to replace them got stuck in the snow which had hit areas around London.
RAIL SERVICES: THE OPERATORS THAT HAVE BEEN HIT THE HARDEST
East Coast
First Capital Connect
First TransPennine Express
Gatwick Express
Grand Central
ScotRail
Southeastern
Southern
DELAYS ON SOME ROUTES
Cross Country
East Midlands Trains
Eurostar
First Great Western
First Hull Trains
London Midland
Northern Rail
Virgin Trains
NORMAL SERVICE
Arriva Trains Wales
Chiltern Railways
c2c
Heathrow Connect
Heathrow Express
Island Line Trains
London Overground
Merseyrail
National Express East Anglia
South West Trains
Stansted Express
Wrexham & Shropshire
A spokesman for Network Rail said that the south and east were expected to be hardest hit by the weather overnight.
Asked how operators are handling the hazard, the spokesman said: 'I wouldn't want to generalise about the country as a whole as there are some train operators that have run a near perfect service today - yet if you move further south you'll find 2ft of snow and disrupted services.
'We are expecting particularly heavy snow tonight in Kent and Sussex, and while there will be a contingency timetable in operation, people can expect delays and should check online if possible before they start their journey.'
The spokesman added that rail crews will be working through the night, with special 'ghost trains' running to keep lines and points free of ice.
'We will also have railroad treatment trains that spray anti-freeze, snowploughs on standby to deal with any drifts, and thousands of people out working through the night so that we can run as full a service as possible,' he said.
According to the National Rail website, more than half of the 28 train operators across the country had their timetables affected by the weather, with eight operators reporting 'major' delays and disruptions and a further eight suffering delays on some routes.
Regions hit worst by the weather included Scotland, the north and east.
East Coast, which runs trains in Scotland and the northeast, advised passengers not to travel unless absolutely necessary, warning that the weather was causing disruptions to 'all services'
Trusty old girl: Tourists enjoy the 70-year-old steam engine of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway as it powers through snowy conditions which brought modern trains to a halt
First TransPennine Express and Grand Central which both operate out of the the north of England, also said that there were cancellations and major delays, with services out of Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds Middlesbrough and Nottingham affected.
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