DESCRIBED by the Meteorological Office as the “worst snow event in Britain since February 1991,” snowfalls continue to cause extensive disruption and cancellation of train services.

National Rail Enquiries’ web site ‘crashed’ due to the huge number of enquiries but is now functioning again.

National Rail Enquiries now advises people not to travel — “if you do decide to travel there is no guarantee that a return service will be able to be provided later today, as further heavy snowfalls are forecast for later this afternoon.”

The following information is now provided.

National Express East Anglia
Services to and from London Liverpool Street and Stratford are being delayed by up to 60 minutes because of signalling problems and broken down trains caused by the poor weather conditions

    An hourly service will run between London Liverpool Street and Norwich
    An hourly service will run between London Liverpool Street an
    Colchester, calling at all stations between Shenfield and Colchester
    Shuttle train services are running between Shenfield and Southend
    between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, between Manningtree and
    Harwich Town, between Witham and Braintree and between Wickford and
    Southminster.
   
Stansted Express
Buses are replacing trains between Bishops Stortford and Stansted Airport, with a half-hourly train service between London Liverpool Street and Bishops Stortford

Virgin Trains
Journeys to / from London Euston may be delayed by up to 30 minutes. To ease congestion, some services may be cancelled

South West Trains
All South West Trains services are currently suspended, with the exception of the following routes where a limited train service is running:
    London Waterloo and Woking
    Hampton Court and Surbiton
    London Waterloo circular services via Wimbledon,
    Kingston & Twickenham
    London Waterloo and Reading
    London Waterloo and Windsor & Eton Riverside
    Portsmouth Harbour and Haslemere
    London Waterloo and Bournemouth
    London Waterloo and Southampton
    Bournemouth and Weymouth
    London Waterloo and Salisbury
    Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton
    London Waterloo and Basingstoke

More snow is forecast later today and overnight into Tuesday, spreading from the South East through the Midlands to the North West.

•  In February 1991 the fine powdery snow—which became known as “the wrong kind of snow” — was ingested into electric motors and sliding doors and disrupted many train services.  The present snowfall is of a similar kind.

Natasha Cheek Photography: n8asha@hotmail.com