Snow travel nightmare for Londoners

London commuters face lengthy delays this evening as heavy snow causes severe disruption

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Monday, 02, Feb 2009 08:11

Commuters in, around and out of London face lengthy delays this evening as heavy snow causes severe disruption to the capital's transport network.

Up to 12in snow could fall on London and the south-east this evening as the heaviest snowfall to hit the region in almost two decades endures.

In pictures: London snowfall

An extreme weather warning from the Met Office remains in place for England and parts of Wales and Scotland, as renewed snowfalls coincide with the evening rush hour.

Snow alerts latest:

• Transport for London has cancelled all London bus services until the weather improves, while most of the tube lines have either been suspended, part-suspended or experiencing severe delays.
• Snow on the tracks: Chaos for commuters
• Airports have been severely affected by the heavy snow, with operator BAA confirming that one of two runways remains closed at Heathrow, while Southampton, Luton and London City airports remain closed and flights atGatwick and Stansted are all subject to significant delays and cancellations.
• Airports stung by heavy snow

Earlier, the prime minister said officials were taking all the necessary steps to help people get home.

"We are doing everything in our power to ensure services, road, rail and airports are open as quickly as possible, and we are continuing to monitor this throughout the day," Gordon Brown said.

Amid criticism of the decision to halt all bus services and a lack of gritter lorries on the streets on Sunday, mayor of London Boris Johnson insisted his office had done "pretty well in what are absolutely extraordinary circumstances".

"There's no doubt about it, this is the right kind of snow, it's just the wrong kind of quantities," he said.

"My message to the heavens is: 'You've put on a fantastic display of snow power but that is probably quite enough'."

But despite Mr Johnson's plea to the heavens, the snow will continue overnight and into tomorrow morning, with the thousands of children who enjoyed a 'snow day' today set to have another day off school.