Tens of thousands of UK airline passengers have had their travel plans torn up as flights are cancelled, while travellers by rail and road face severe disruption as the Met Office issues amber warnings.
Here is everything you need to know.
Railways
The UK’s flagship rail route – the East Coast Main Line, which connects London King's Cross with Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland – is in disarray due to a broken rail on the southbound line between Peterborough and Stevenage.
National Rail says: “Major disruption is expected until the end of the day.”
Grand Central, Hull Trains and state-run LNER have all cancelled multiple trains as a result.
LNER says tickets for Monday 5 January will be valid for use on Tuesday 6 January at no extra cost. The train operator has arranged for tickets to be used on reasonable routes on the following services at no extra cost:
- Avanti West Coast between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston
- CrossCountry between Edinburgh/Newcastle and York/Leeds/Doncaster/Sheffield
- East Midlands Railway between Sheffield/Leicester and London St Pancras International
- Northern between Harrogate/Skipton/Bradford Forster Square/Leeds/Sheffield
- TransPennine Express between Newcastle/York and Leeds/Manchester
In Scotland, LNER has cancelled all trains between Edinburgh and Aberdeen until 2pm on Tuesday 6 January. “There will be no rail replacement transport in operation,” the operator says.
ScotRail trains on key lines in the north of the country have been cancelled due to heavy and drifting snow:
- Aberdeen-Dundee
- Aberdeen-Inverness
- Inverness-Wick/Thurso
- Inverness-Kyle of Lochalsh
In north Wales, lines between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog and between Machynlleth and Pwllheli are closed.
Air travel
For flyers, mass cancellations to and from Amsterdam Schiphol airport have continued for a fourth day due to snow and ice. Around 70 flights between the Dutch hub and UK airports on KLM have been cancelled. Many routes have seen at least six flights grounded, including Aberdeen, Birmingham, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, London City and Norwich.
The Dutch airline is telling passengers: “Due to severe winter weather, including snow and strong winds, flights at Amsterdam airport Schiphol are disrupted. We understand this may be stressful, but we are doing all we can to help you on your way again.”
For some smaller airports, links to Amsterdam are the only international flights of the day.
EasyJet has grounded at least 16 flights to and from the Dutch airport on Monday. British Airways has cancelled 10 flights so far linking Heathrow and London City with Amsterdam.
Belfast International airport is experiencing severe disruption. On Sunday evening, dozens of flights were cancelled or diverted. The easyJet flight from Glasgow returned to its starting point after getting no further than Belfast Lough, while a Ryanair flight from Alicante diverted to Dublin after it was unable to land at Belfast International.
On Monday, easyJet cancelled two dozen domestic flights between points in Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s largest airport. Eight flights to and from Belfast City were grounded on Sunday night.
Elsewhere, hundreds of easyJet passengers in Egypt are waiting to be flown home from their New Year holidays in Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh. On Sunday, Britain’s biggest budget airline cancelled flights from Gatwick to the Red Sea resorts, as well as the return legs, “due to air-traffic control restrictions and Greek airspace closure”. Dozens of flights to and from Athens were grounded by the air-traffic control failure.
Roads
On the roads, Traffic Scotland has closed the A939 linking Nairn on the Moray coast with the Grampians. On the A835 in northwest Scotland from Ullapool to Tore, motorists are advised to travel “only if necessary”.
Translink in Northern Ireland is warning bus passengers that snow and ice may lead to cancellations.
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