• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Snow and Ice Updates

Status
Not open for further replies.

Wivenswold

Established Member
Joined
24 Jul 2012
Messages
1,478
Location
Essex
Could be fun and games from Thursday for the majority of the UK's network.
Latest forecasts suggesting heavy snow for the Friday morning peak. Overnight lows of -4oC will cause ice-related travel problems too.

Worth keeping an eye on, especially if you're travelling before or during the weekend.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

185143

Established Member
Joined
3 Mar 2013
Messages
4,486
I've got to use VTWC, Southern and VTEC and TPE on Saturday. I can see this going badly!

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
 

D1009

Established Member
Joined
22 Feb 2012
Messages
3,166
Location
Stoke Gifford
Could be fun and games from Thursday for the majority of the UK's network.
Latest forecasts suggesting heavy snow for the Friday morning peak. Overnight lows of -4oC will cause ice-related travel problems too.

Worth keeping an eye on, especially if you're travelling before or during the weekend.
As far as the southern half of the country is concerned, there is heavy rain for most of tomorrow turning to heavy snow in the evening followed by an overnight frost. Certainly not ideal. South West will probably escape the frost.
 

infobleep

Veteran Member
Joined
27 Feb 2011
Messages
12,556
Wow. I do hope we get the snow. I love snow. Bring it on. I admit it does disadvantage some people and some people have died in Europe because of it. I would rather people didn't die. However I do love the snow.
 

61653 HTAFC

Veteran Member
Joined
18 Dec 2012
Messages
17,623
Location
Another planet...
Was kept awake by strong winds last night, only just set out so not sure if services were affected - though my train from Batley to Dewsbury was late off Leeds and lost further time due to poor rail conditions. Apparently some lines were obstructed earlier on though, assuming Calder Valley.
 

J-2739

Established Member
Joined
30 Jul 2016
Messages
2,043
Location
Barnsley/Cambridge
Wow. I do hope we get the snow. I love snow. Bring it on. I admit it does disadvantage some people and some people have died in Europe because of it. I would rather people didn't die. However I do love the snow.

I love the snow also, but let's hope it's not too serious for commuters.

The fact that many people in the Continent has died of the cold has made me wonder how bad it actually is down there.
 

infobleep

Veteran Member
Joined
27 Feb 2011
Messages
12,556
Is the Surrey and Sussex area likely to get snow?
It seems likely.
Could see another Reading game abandoned! This with the Southern & Tube strike this week.
I guess the Southern strike wouldn't matter.

Out of interest, how do they keep the ice of icing up if no train services are running during a strike? Clearly it won't matter whilst they strike but I'm thinking after the strike has ended and no trains have used a stretch of line for a time.
 

SpacePhoenix

Established Member
Joined
18 Mar 2014
Messages
5,492
Semi on-topic I saw a picture on one newspaper website of a rather large obstruction caught up in the OLE somewhere - a trampoline!
 

PacerTrain142

On Moderation
Joined
23 Aug 2016
Messages
211
Location
Next to the Railway
Shouldn't be a problem.

I live in Pacerland next to a line where a Class 142 makes up 75% of the rolling stock.

We've had heavy snow before and the Pacers seem to have coped just fine, (it's leaves they really struggle with).

The Pacers were built up North in Leyland so they were built with Snow in mind. Whereas down in the balmy South all these brand spanking new trains such as Class 700 will likely have problems....
 
Last edited:

158756

Established Member
Joined
12 Aug 2014
Messages
1,426
There's already been snow today on the higher routes in Scotland.
This is the view on the A9 at Drumochter:
https://trafficscotland.org/livetrafficcameras/view/?cam=65

However in Scotland that doesn't merit any sort of warning on traffic Scotland, BBC travel news or on national rail enquiries.

(Though to be honest, I might be suggesting we're a bit soft further south, but I wouldn't drive in that)
 

al78

Established Member
Joined
7 Jan 2013
Messages
2,400
There's already been snow today on the higher routes in Scotland.
This is the view on the A9 at Drumochter:
https://trafficscotland.org/livetrafficcameras/view/?cam=65

However in Scotland that doesn't merit any sort of warning on traffic Scotland, BBC travel news or on national rail enquiries.

(Though to be honest, I might be suggesting we're a bit soft further south, but I wouldn't drive in that)

The Drumochter pass rises up to around 1500ft asl so I expect heavy snow and occasional blizzard conditions are an annual event. If it gets really bad they do have snow gates which are used to close the road. I guess that closing the road is a last resort as the A9 is the primary route to get to northern Scotland.

Traffic Scotland do have warnings out for Drumochter and other routes:

https://trafficscotland.org/weather/index.aspx?regionid=2

I am in London tomorrow afternoon, I will get up there fine but I'll be traveling home an hour or so after the rain has turned to snow, so am hoping I'll be able to get a train back to Horsham, even if it is delayed. I wouldn't fancy trying to cycle the 40 miles back home on a cold icy winter night! I'm not expecting it to be that bad, it just looks like a normal winter cold snap with a bit of snow thrown in, it is not on the scale of January or December 2010.
 

96tommy

Member
Joined
18 May 2010
Messages
1,057
Location
London
Hopefully we see some snow here in London tomorrow.... as long as I can get back up to Yorkshire on Friday for the weekend. Latest forecast suggesting heavy snow 6pm onwards tomorrow but with heavy rain during the day
 

Cletus

Established Member
Joined
11 Dec 2010
Messages
2,227
Location
Dover
Gale force winds and rain then snow forecast for Dover (& other places) tomorrow evening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2651048?day=1

The lovely Rachel Mackley on the BBC south east weather suggested 3-4cm of snow, which of course isn't that much, but will probably cause chaos!
 

D1009

Established Member
Joined
22 Feb 2012
Messages
3,166
Location
Stoke Gifford
The met office often overplays the forecast in these circumstances, but of concern tomorrow is the strength of the wind as well as the snow.
 

Wivenswold

Established Member
Joined
24 Jul 2012
Messages
1,478
Location
Essex
The met office often overplays the forecast in these circumstances, but of concern tomorrow is the strength of the wind as well as the snow.

There are a few less obvious threats I think. Snow alone doesn't always bring the system to a halt. As you've said, high winds are expected at various times in the next few days, especially down the East Coast.

The Environment Agency have warned of coastal flooding and there are similarities between the position of Friday's North Sea depression and the 1953 one.

I think the worst will be ice though. Torrential rain will fall today across the whole SE before it turns to snow. That slushy mixture on the ground will freeze when the skies clear tonight.

It's not a good combo but OHL lines will probably fare better than 3rd rail ones. Which is more bad news for Southern passengers.
 
Last edited:

Deepgreen

Established Member
Joined
12 Jun 2013
Messages
6,340
Location
Betchworth, Surrey
Any snow-related problems in the Southern area will no doubt be attributed to industrial action.

I suspect there may be a tricky situation at locations away from London and above about 200 feet a.m.s.l. where heavy rain is overlain by wet snow and then the resultant slush freezes overnight - almost the worst case for third rail operation (second only to freezing rain, or 'ice storm', as the Americans call it).
 

Islineclear3_1

Established Member
Joined
24 Apr 2014
Messages
5,810
Location
PTSO or platform depending on the weather
Any snow-related problems in the Southern area will no doubt be attributed to industrial action.

I suspect there may be a tricky situation at locations away from London and above about 200 feet a.m.s.l. where heavy rain is overlain by wet snow and then the resultant slush freezes overnight - almost the worst case for third rail operation (second only to freezing rain, or 'ice storm', as the Americans call it).

This will indeed be very tricky especially as commuters, having heard the news updates will want to get out of work earlier where possible and get home.
 

Greenback

Emeritus Moderator
Joined
9 Aug 2009
Messages
15,268
Location
Llanelli
I don't think we'll have any snow in Llanelli (famous last words) but there's sleet in Carmarthen.
 

Trackman

Established Member
Joined
28 Feb 2013
Messages
2,922
Location
Lewisham
I don't think we'll have any snow in Llanelli (famous last words) but there's sleet in Carmarthen.

My mum lives on the North Wales coast, It hardly ever snows, I think the last time was about 5 years ago and then only briefly.
 

fishquinn

Established Member
Associate Staff
Quizmaster
Joined
4 Oct 2013
Messages
6,643
Location
Warwickshire
How's it meant to be by Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, particularly up in Glasgow?

Cheers.
 

bahnause

Member
Joined
30 Dec 2016
Messages
404
Location
bülach (switzerland)
This will indeed be very tricky especially as commuters, having heard the news updates will want to get out of work earlier where possible and get home.

It's still much more preferable to commute by train than by car... (depending on the driving skills)
 

Attachments

  • car.jpg
    car.jpg
    41.4 KB · Views: 103
  • Bass.jpg
    Bass.jpg
    144.5 KB · Views: 112
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top