A new year. An old problem. The British weather delivered as promised and made the first weekend on the UK rail network a trail by snow. Services across the entire country were disrupted. In many locations, they remain disrupted and delayed.
Widespread snowfalls, particularly in the southern parts of the UK, made rail transport difficult over the weekend. Warnings of severe weather were, for once, entirely realised. Temperatures dropped, and so did the snow from the sky. Exposed railways, particularly at higher altitudes and latitudes, were exposed to a combination of snow build up and freezing conditions.
Snow, cold, then rain
Official warnings from government sources told the majority of Britain that travel was off the agenda over the weekend of 4-5 January. Those warnings remained in place going into the start of the week. The forecast is for snow, followed by freezing conditions, and then rain towards the end of the week. While Britain’s winter weather rarely exhibits the annual extremes experienced in many other parts of Europe, its unpredictability is a major headache for rail operators.
Network Rail, the British infrastructure management agency, issued warnings over travel difficulties in the North West and West Midlands of England. It also said that the busiest mixed traffic route in Europe, the West Coast Main Line between London and Scotland, was at risk of disruption. The likelihood remains, that if weather warnings are accurate, then the entire network will face another difficult week.
West Coast at work on West Coast
The Met Office, the United Kingdom’s national weather and climate service, issued an “amber warning” for snow and freezing rain across a large part of the country from Saturday into Sunday. That’s put rail operations on alert, but also other transport. Manchester Airport, a major transport hub, with extensive rail links, periodically closed over the weekend. Manchester in general suffered extensive flooding only one week ago, as reported across RailFreight.com and RailTech.com.
Charter train operator West Coast Railways participated in efforts to keep lines open. WCR, better known for its “Jacobite” (Harry Potter) excursions, was out, rebelling against the wintry conditions. The Settle-Carlisle line, which spectacularly crosses the Pennine Hills, and is a critical freight route, suffered from points failure over the weekend, which put additional pressure on the West Coast Main Line, which it normally relieves. West Coast Railways, which usually runs exclusive pleasure trips, deployed motive power on the line to assist with “proving runs” – ensuring the line was fit for traffic before services were restored late on Sunday.
The Met Office weather warnings remain in place for Monday (6 January), covering most of England, Scotland and Wales. These yellow and amber weather warnings are for snow, ice and rain. The weather challenges come on top of a series of seasonal incidents, many of which remain to be fully resolved. As always, however, given the vast differences between northern and southern parts of Britain, many readers are forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about.