Image
© Agence France-PresseGatwick airport is expected to remain shut until at least 6am on Friday
Travel networks were paralysed on Thursday as severe weather conditions affected roads, railways and airports while an urgent review of the country's transport systems got under way.

Britain's second busiest airport, London Gatwick, was closed for the second consecutive day due to the hostile weather conditions and is expected to remain shut until tomorrow morning.

Edinburgh Airport was also closed again this morning and was expecting to reopen at 4:00 pm this afternoon.

Hundreds of rail commuters spent a freezing night aboard an abandoned train and many other trains were cancelled in southeast England. Southern trains suspended its services today while Southeastern was running an emergency timetable.

About half of Eurostar train services between London and Paris, and London and Brussels, were cancelled today because of bad weather, a spokeswoman said.

On the roads, there were closures on the M20 in Kent due to hazardous driving conditions, while police in Essex, Sussex and Surrey advised people to make only essential or emergency trips.

Yesterday motoring organisation AA attended more than 11,300 incidents.

In Crawley, West Sussex, a motorcyclist was killed in a crash involving a lorry at 5:10 am, and a woman died after falling into a freezing lake at Pontefract racecourse, West Yorkshire.

The government today started an urgent review of how transport systems were performing amid criticism of Britain's preparedness for the icy conditions and a lack of communication to commuters.

Transport minister Philip Hammond said while authorities had built up stockpiles of salt to treat icy roads after supplies ran short last year, he was concerned at the state of transport since the freeze started last week.

Image
© Agence France-PresseUp to 20cm (8in) of fresh snowfall is expected to fall on the east of England today
"I share the frustration of the travelling public and we need to be sure that we are doing everything possible to keep Britain moving," he said.

"Unfortunately, in extreme weather conditions some disruption is inevitable but there is no excuse for poor communication with passengers and motorists."

Hundreds of passengers were forced to bed down for the night in a freezing train which failed at a station in Sussex.

Passenger Rebecca Forsey told the BBC: "It was an absolute nightmare. We had to wait around for several hours in the cold on a freezing platform. We finally got something to eat at 4:00 am."

Air travellers complained they had made their way to Gatwick because they were told flights were likely to resume on Thursday, only to find all flights were cancelled until at least 0600 GMT on Friday.

Up to 20 centimetres (eight inches) of fresh snow was expected to fall on eastern England today, with London and southeast England also hit by more blizzards. Large parts of Scotland remained blanketed by snow.

Temperatures across the UK are unlikely to rise above freezing today but forecasters offered some respite, predicting that the wintry weather will ease slightly tomorrow.

Met Office forecaster David Price said: "It will continue to be very cold for most of the country today and in terms of snow it will be a very similar picture to yesterday.

"Showers will be pushing in from the North East coast and across northern England all the way through to the east coast.

"A band of snow will continue to affect southeast England, with the Home Counties, Kent, Surrey and London all experiencing between 2cm and 5cm of snowfall. Southern counties and Devon will also have snow."

The Met Office has issued severe warnings of heavy snow in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber, the East, the South West and London and the South East.