Travellers ask who's to blame for snow chaos

23 Dec 2009, 10:48 am   -   Source: BBC, AFP
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Questions are being asked over who’s to blame for the travel chaos that's followed the heavy snow storms in Europe.

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Questions are being asked over who’s to blame for the travel chaos that's followed the heavy snow storms in Europe.

The Automobile Association in the UK has declared some ‘no go areas’ after roads weren’t treated with salt and grit to reduce the danger of ice.

It says it’s received a huge number of complaints from drivers about untreated roads, and Monday was its busiest night for 25 years, with the breakdown service receiving about 700 calls every hour.

But councils say they’ve been working hard, with gritting vehicles also getting stuck in the slow-moving traffic.

Hundreds of drivers in Basingstoke, west of London, became stuck in their cars and were forced to abandon them in the slippery conditions.
  
And in nearby Buckinghamshire, about 100 people, including 20 children, spent the night in a department store after being snowed in.

‘Disastrous response’

The Eurostar train service has also been cricised for the breakdown of trains between London, Paris and Brussels stranding 2,000 people in the Channel Tunnel.

Politicians on both sides of the Channel have criticised the train operator, which is a consortium of a British firm and the French and Belgian state networks, for what is seen as its disastrous response.

The French rail firm SNCF explained, "Tests carried out on Sunday showed that short-circuits were caused by an exceptionally fine and powdery snow. It built up in the motor compartments and brutally condensed on entry to the tunnel."

Passengers have also criticised the lack of information provided to them.

Annelise Pemers, who’s trying to get home to Belgium from London, said "I heard they said it was because of the wrong type of snow, but they need to put plans in place to deal with that, and the information from Eurostar has been terrible."

Restricted services began again on Tuesday to try and clear the backlog, and the company said it would continue to operate a restricted timetable on Wednesday and Thursday.

Airline disruption

There have also been serious problems for flights. EasyJet cancelled more than 200 due to the "significant snowfall" and airport closures across Europe, while Irish carrier Ryanair grounded about 65 flights.
  
British Airways also cancelled a "small number" of short-haul flights on Tuesday morning, blaming the disruption caused by Monday's heavy snowfall which had shut London Gatwick, Britain's second busiest airport, for several hours.
  
Germany's Frankfurt Airport, Europe's third busiest, was closed for about four hours overnight after the runways iced over, stranding about 8,000 people.
  
And in Berlin, freezing rain led to the closure of the main international airport, Tegel, for about an hour.
  
London Luton Airport was also closed overnight, and although it re-opened many flights were cancelled or subject to lengthy delays.
  
In Italy, Milan's Malpensa Airport was closed in the morning after heavy snowfall while at Linate Airport, which also serves the northern industrial city, hundreds of passengers spent the night, after the national carrier Alitalia, which accounts for some 75 percent of the airport's capacity, cancelled all flights in and out.
  
British Airways chartered a Boeing 747 on Monday to fly about 350 stranded passengers between London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle, and said it would repeat the service again later on Tuesday, a spokesman said.

With more snow forecast, travellers are set to face more disruption in the busy lead up to Christmas.
 

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