Freezing conditions bring travel chaos

Some managed to enjoy the snow

	:	Winter wonderland
You sent us your photos of the snow-covered UK

Snow and icy conditions have caused havoc for road and rail users with train delays and numerous vehicle breakdowns.

The AA was called out to deal with 1,000 breakdowns by 0830 GMT on Tuesday - about three times more than usual - after temperatures in some parts of the country plunged to minus 16C overnight.

A signals failure at London's Paddington station added to the misery, halting all train services.

And other rail commuters, particularly in the south-east of England, struggled in to work as trains were cancelled when points froze.

Thousands of cars broke down in the big freeze

An AA spokesman said the most common problems for drivers were flat batteries and frozen locks.

"We coped with 22,500 breakdowns yesterday [Monday], which was about twice the average for a working day," said the AA spokesman.

Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday saw temperatures as low as minus 6C in Edinburgh and a couple of degrees below freezing in much of the rest of the country.

Temperatures struggled to rise above freezing during daylight hours and are set to dip below again after dark.

Train delays

There was the rare sight of snow in central London, with people in Kent, Essex and the West Country waking up to a white countryside.

However, the delight at a winter wonderland was short-lived for many commuters as trains were disrupted by the freezing weather.

Railtrack's successor, Network Rail, admitted its points heating system had failed to cope, with multiple points failures on key commuter routes in south London and Kent.

Poor housing and damp conditions are causing the unnecessary deaths of thousands of older people

Help the Aged

Some trains broke down while others were delayed and cancelled, leaving travellers stranded in sub-zero conditions for over an hour.

"We've had heaters on thousands of points but snow and low temperatures have meant that some have not functioned and this has led to a number of points failures," said a Network Rail spokesman.

Connex South Eastern services were subject to short notice cancellations and delays of up to two hours due to frozen points.

At Sole Street between Swanley and Chatham in Kent, about 800 rail passengers had to continue their journey to London by bus after a small electrical fire under one of the train carriages.

The fire had been caused by thick ice on the electrical rail which provides power to the train.

Customer dissatisfaction

Connex said passengers had not been in any danger from the "small fire".

A signal failure at Paddington station on Tuesday morning caused widespread disruption with no services leaving or entering platforms.

Network Rail said it was not sure what had caused the problem, although the adverse weather conditions were not being linked at this stage.

Animals had to cope with cold conditions

A spokesman said: "There won't be passengers stuck on trains but it's going to cause some delays to services."

The Rail Passengers Council criticised the rail network for not providing better services given that the weather conditions were "not extreme".

"Ultimately it has to be about developing a more resilient network that's robust enough to stand up to power failures, signalling problems and adverse weather conditions," a spokeswoman said.

"We would expect them to be able to stand up to a bit of frost and ice."

Police warned motorists not to defrost cars by leaving them unattended with the engines running, after a series of opportunist thefts.

Police in Greater Manchester are looking for at least seven stolen cars after they were taken as the owners left them to defrost on Monday.

Charity Help the Aged warned that many older people would not live through the cold snap.

"As the cold weather bites... poor housing and damp conditions are causing the unnecessary deaths of thousands of older people," a spokeswoman said.

Gas off

Meanwhile, one Cumbrian village has been struggling without gas supplies amid freezing conditions.

Up to 800 homes in Kirkby Lonsdale lost their supply on Sunday.

Transco engineers were working to restore it and distribute electric heaters and cooking hobs.

Cold weather forced the cancellation of races at Sedgefield and Leicester on Tuesday, but a meeting at the all-weather track at Lingfield has gone ahead.

The cold weather has provided respite for many people hit by recent flooding, but while river levels are subsiding the Environment Agency still had 24 flood warnings in place on Tuesday.