NATIONAL Rail Enquiries has disclosed that the public’s quest for information about train services after snow began falling on 2 February broke all records — exceeding even the number made after the 7/7 London bombings in 2005.

In a statement today, NRE said: “Demand [on 2 February] reached around ten times the normal peak levels. By comparison the previous biggest peak of demand was during the London bombings, when demand reached around six times normal peak levels.”

The two call centres — in South Yorkshire and Mumbai, India — offered 387,000 calls on 2 February, compared to a normal day’s 42,000 enquiries.

And, at the peak of demand, the NRE web site received 48,000 simultaneous visits, compared to a normal day’s peak of 3,000 visits.

NRE rejected reports in many news media that its web site had crashed on 2 February under the demand. “The problem was that there was so much demand that there were many customers who could not gain access for a short period between 0700 and 0800,” said NRE.