Snow, ice disrupt travel in UK, France and Netherlands

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Some of the winter’s coldest weather so far hit travel in Britain, France and the Netherlands on Monday, closing roads, grounding flights and forcing train cancellations, including on Eurostar, just days after a power outage caused major disruption.

Eurostar, which links the UK to the European mainland, told passengers traveling between London and the Netherlands to postpone their journeys, as services could not operate beyond Brussels due to the Dutch weather.

Rail traffic through the Channel Tunnel had only resumed on New Year’s Eve, after an electricity failure stranded thousands of passengers and even trapped some for a night on a powerless train.

“Due to expected adverse weather conditions, the traffic is suspended in the Netherlands today,” Eurostar said in a live service update, urging travellers affected not to turn up to the station.

Six trains between London St. Pancras International and Paris Gare du Nord were canceled, with most others delayed, the timetable indicated.

British railway authorities, meanwhile, deployed snowploughs in Scotland to try to clear tracks hit by heavy snow, which reached up to 52 centimeters on Monday morning in Tomintoul, near Inverness in northeast Scotland.

NS Dutch railways said services were severely disrupted on Monday, especially in the Amsterdam region, and fewer trains would run in some parts of the country on Tuesday.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, one of the largest in Europe, announced at least 700 flight cancellations Wednesday because of snow and wind, following days of weather-related travel disruptions.

More than 1,000 people spent the night at Schiphol, the airport said, adding that it had set up camp beds and offered breakfast to travelers forced to sleep there. The number of cancellations is expected to rise throughout the day.

The UK’s Met Office issued fresh weather warnings for Monday and Tuesday for snow and ice for Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England and said cold weather health alerts for all English regions would remain in place until Friday.

The disruption follows a cold snap in recent days in the UK. 

Temperatures dropped to a low of -10.9C in the high hills of Shap in Cumbria, northwest England, on Sunday night. 

“Overnight into Tuesday temperatures will once again fall below freezing for much of the country, with the lowest temperatures over lying snow possibly dipping to -12C,” the Met Office said.

A total of 212 schools were closed in Northern Ireland on Monday, the authorities said, with dozens of schools also shut in Scotland, Wales and northern England.