Christmas snow brings Scotland to a standstill

Published on Tuesday 22 December 2009 21:57

TRAVELLERS suffered a nightmare before Christmas yesterday, as the most severe festive weather for 14 years brought massive disruption to Scotland's transport network.

&#149 Snow in Edinburgh yesterday

Drivers were caught in gridlock on major roads while delayed rail passengers swamping Scotland's largest railway station forced its closure during the evening rush hour.

Last night, the M74 in Dumfriesshire was brought a virtual standstill by a combination of rain, snow and freezing temperatures. Both carriageways were reduced to single lanes as gritters fought to keep roads open.

Airports were also badly affected. Aberdeen's runway was closed for several hours, and dozens of flights at airports including Edinburgh and Glasgow were cancelled because of weather problems in London and across Europe.

Passengers with the no-frills airline EasyJet were worst affected, with 21 Scottish flight cancellations. British Airways grounded all Scotland-Heathrow flights until 1pm, but pledged to get passengers on their way as soon as possible, possibly by laying on larger aircraft.

Edinburgh airport said 12 departures and 11 arrivals had been cancelled yesterday. A spokeswoman said: "These were to do with weather problems elsewhere in the UK."

Glasgow airport said some flights had been cancelled and others delayed, also because of problems elsewhere.

Airports urged passengers to contact airlines directly today before travelling to their departure terminal.

Temperatures are expected to plunge as low as -16C in parts of the Highlands tonight, after reaching only -12C near Inverness at noon yesterday. Police forces across Scotland advised drivers to take care in the wintry conditions and, where the weather was worst, not to leave home.

Aberdeen was worst hit yesterday morning, with traffic grinding to a halt in the city centre and on main through routes.

Hours later, the snowfall switched to the Central Belt, bringing peak-hour chaos to Glasgow. Long tailbacks developed on the M8 and M77, while other roads across the city became choked with slow-moving vehicles. The problems stretched east along the M8, with drivers reporting that it had taken two and a half hours to travel between Lanarkshire and Edinburgh.

Yesterday afternoon, Network Rail was forced to close Glasgow Central station – the hub of the largest suburban rail network outside London – because of the sheer number of delayed passengers crowding on to the concourse.

Signalling problems and a broken-down train, blamed on the bad weather, shut the main Paisley line and several other routes on the south side of the city. They included routes to Cathcart, East Kilbride and Kilmarnock. The Paisley line, which suffered an earlier points failure, serves the Gourock, Wemyss Bay, Largs, Ardrossan and Ayr routes.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "To avoid overcrowding in the concourse, we have had to prevent more people from entering the station temporarily.

"We are being hampered by the weather, and gridlocked traffic around Glasgow is slowing our ability to access the areas causing a problem."

Network Rail later said services from the station had resumed, although delays were expected until late into the evening.

Eurostar admitted it would not get back to normal until after Christmas, with limited passenger services operating through the Channel Tunnel and linking London with Paris and Brussels today and tomorrow.

Meanwhile, bookies cut the odds on a white Christmas – snow actually falling on the day – with Ladbrokes offering evens on Glasgow seeing the white stuff. But the Met Office said the north and north-east of Scotland were most likely to get snow.

Lying snow is expected to remain across much of the rest of the country on Friday.

By contrast, the normally seasonally snowy Icelandic capital of Reykjavik faces a "red Christmas", with no snow forecast.

Scotland last suffered such poor Christmas weather in 1995, when 115mph gales and heavy snow closed many roads and left thousands of homes without power.

This year's bad weather has been blamed for at least one death, and the funeral takes place today of Donald Martin, 35, who died after being found in freezing conditions outside his home in Lewis.

One theory is that he locked himself out of his home after a night out, as temperatures plunged below zero. He was seen by a neighbour to be unsteady in his back garden at about 7am on Saturday and was found collapsed there at 1pm.

His funeral will be held at Martin's Memorial Church in Stornoway, where he was a worshipper.

Elsewhere, a 60-year-old grandmother remained in a serious condition in hospital yesterday after she was locked out of her Midlothian home in sub-zero temperatures at the weekend.

Jeanette Wright was found unconscious outside her home in Gorebridge at about 9am on Sunday.

A neighbour discovered her "frozen in a ball" after she apparently spent seven hours out in the open.

More on this story:

Gates shut at Glasgow Central as thousands throng concourse

Dozens of flights cancelled or delayed by Europe's big freeze

Cities badly affected as heavy snowfall brings gridlock to roads