Morning:
8°c
Travel turmoil as icy conditions bring misery to commuters
7 Jan 2010
Widespread ice caused more havoc today for road, railway and airline travellers.
Budget airline easyJet cancelled around 70 flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, despite the runway reopening last night.
British Airways said it had also scrapped a number of flights with more delayed due to icy conditions at both Heathrow and Gatwick.
It was offering passengers heading to the airports today the option of rebooking their flight for another day.
"We understand that some customers (today) will have difficulty travelling to the airport so we are also offering the option of rebooking flights to a date within the next 14 days regardless of whether the flight has been cancelled," the airline said.
The renewed disruption came despite all of the UK's main airports managing to open today - many were forced to close temporarily yesterday because of the heavy snow.
Luton, Birmingham, Stansted, Cardiff, Glasgow and Southampton Airports were among those working to get back to normal, but all were advising travellers to expect disruption and to contact their airline.
Train operators up and down the country were looking in slightly better shape after widespread delays and cancellations yesterday.
South West Trains said it was hoping to run a normal service today, with Chiltern Railways planning near-normal operations.
Virgin Trains said it was also planning a near-normal service, while the East Coast Main Line said trains were running but some services may be subject to cancellation or delay.
More of the UK's major roads were also passable today, although forecasters warned drivers faced dangerous icy conditions on untreated routes.
Several police forces including Devon and Cornwall, Kent and Lothian and Borders are urging drivers not to travel unless necessary.
A section of the A66 in Cumbria remained shut and sections of other roads that were closed included the A1(M) in County Durham and the A628 in Derbyshire.
The Local Government Association said the equivalent of more than 1.7 million miles of road in England had been gritted in the last three weeks. It said supplies of salt were stretched but "holding up".
Reader views (1)
National Express East Anglia was a complete joke this morning... THREE broken down trains on one line? The only 'good' news was that it delayed things long enough for them to fix the overhead wire problem at Hackney Downs ..........
- Paul, London, 07/01/2010 12:44
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