A day on from Tuesday’s snow and freezing conditions in the UK’s southeast, travel plans were still suffering disruption in the region this morning.
Those worst affected were passengers on Eurostar, the high-speed rail network that connects the UK with France and the rest of Europe via the Channel Tunnel. Continuing freezing weather in Kent, southeastern England, and also in northern France means that delays on the route were inevitable, and longer journey times were also predicted.
A statement on Eurostar’s website read, ‘We anticipate speed restrictions remaining in place throughout the day. Unfortunately as a consequence, we will only be able to operate an amended timetable and journey times will be approximately two hours longer than usual.’
Travellers using air connections to and from the Channel Islands were also expecting delays and cancellations until at least later in the day. The island of Jersey, which rarely sees substantial accumulations of snow, was particularly badly hit by snowstorms during Tuesday. Snow covered runways meant that the airport had to be closed to traffic and was predicted to stay closed until at least 2pm today. A short distance away, the neighbouring island of Guernsey was also forced to ground all flights, and that is likely to be the situation until at least 3pm today. Once the two airports reopen it is expected that there will still be some disruption until aircraft are repositioned.
The weather outlook is at least predicting a gradual end to the freezing conditions over the next day or so, with a return to milder but less settled weather and outbreaks of rain.
