Now, ignoring Daily Mail-esque rantings about the wrong kind of whatever, realistically how is the rail network likely to hold up on Friday if we get the possible 6″ of snow through the day?

I’ve got a long train journey to do to get home, wondering if I should try and get out on Thursday night instead to avoid being stranded. I’v done plenty of train travel but never in snow.

More often than not, it depends not on the snow so much, but how cold it is.
Most points have heaters, so shouldnt clog with snow. I doubt 6″ will make a significant impact on the train running, but depends how the drivers get to the depots!

I wouldn’t worry about it we won’t get the 6″ they were talking about, still waiting for the -15c colder than the Arctic temps they predicted for this week.

Temp in Dunfermline last 2 days has been -1.5c and the trains have been 11-15mins late each morning, swtf are they gonna do on Friday?

The thing that really boils my piss is that they tell you every 30s that the train is late and how sorry they are and then intersperse these extraneous, pointless, monotonal, irritating annoucements voiced by a banshee made over a tannoy manufactured from rusty baked bean cans with health safety warnings about how slippery the platforms are…

and breathe.

still waiting for the -15c colder than the Arctic temps they predicted for this week

It was -10 in Norfolk somewhere last night iirc.

Not colder than the Artic then or -15c.

Depends on what part of the country you’re travelling. A few things can go wrong:

Frozen points
Poor traction due to ice on rails
Electrification problems – particularly bad in third rail areas (Kent can be knocked out by a couple of inches of snow)
Another huge factor is train crews not able to get to where they’re supposed to be because of road disruption.

Mainline routes (eg WCML / ECML) tend to hold up better than commuter routes due to higher traffic levels and generally better infrastructure and maintenance so you may be OK.

Well, Greater Anglia imposed speed limits AND cancelled a load of trains due to the snow on Monday.

The speed limits were so that the trains were not damaged by the snow!

So, did we have 2 feet of the cold white stuff? No we didn’t, at most was a little bit of car roofs and a sprinkling on the grass.

I expect Greater Anglis will send out an e-mail later today saying that they will cancel all trains on Friday because there is some air in teh sky that might be a bit cold. Useless idiots

still waiting for the -15c colder than the Arctic temps they predicted for this week

Alright, so who’s ‘they’ and what did they actually say?

Did they say ‘it’ll definitely be -15’ or ‘temperatures may go as low as -15’ ?

Useless idiots

Thread rules clearly outlined above – no Daily Mailing please.

Depends on what part of the country you’re travelling

Nottingham to Cardiff via Brum and either Bristol Parkway or Cheltenham.

So a sort of Cross Country Trains affair.

The main lines will have plans in place to get staff out to keep junctions etc clear, but at the expense of the more rural lines or freight routes. If it’s mainline then you should be OK, although there may be a few delays.

The thing about freezing temps is not so much the junctions freezing up (they’re mainly heated these days), or major junctions getting jammed up by snow build-up (junction teams sort that as above), it’s ice build-up in ‘wet’ tunnels and where snow builds up on the front of trains bunging up couplers and on pantographs which damages all sorts of equipment. De-icing trains do run through tunnels etc, but usually in the early hours before the morning peak. If ice-build-up outstrips the melting caused by passing trains then the tunnel will get closed.

Alright, so who’s ‘they’ and what did they actually say?

Did they say ‘it’ll definitely be -15’ or ‘temperatures may go as low as -15’ ?

They did and it was in the papers and on the TV, probably same place as you seen that they said there’d be 6″ of snow on Friday.

Interestingly, there may be speed restrictions imposed on high-speed lines to stop snow being dragged onto the junction equipment by the turbulance of a passing train. It depends on the snow type.

Nottingham to Cardiff via Brum and either Bristol Parkway or Cheltenham.

That’s going to be mainly non electrified route so should be no issues on that score. South Wales has an amber warning for snow and temps of -5 forecast though so there could still be problems… personally I’d suck it and see and check the real time running info before heading to the station to see how things have shaped up overnight.

http://nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ldb/
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/today.html

Edit: Just seen from your OP that you’ve an option to head back on Thursday – I’d probably do that TBH.

probably same place as you seen that they said there’d be 6″ of snow on Friday

No-one said there’d be 6″ of snow. Carol on the weather this morning said there MIGHT be 6″ of snow.

Which is why I used words like ‘if’ and ‘possible’ in my op.

Thanks for the actually useful info Sprocket Jockey 🙂

Which is my whole point why listen to the weather it’s usually miles off and full scaremongering and causes people to start to worry about what trains might do. 😉

I dunno what weather you listen to, I just heard a lady telling me current thinking about what might happen on Friday.

If indeed there is a lot of snow it might affect my travel plans – not being familiar with trains in snow I thought I’d ask for some opinions.

BBC, ITV, Sky what ever happens to be on really but as a general rule none as they can’t get it right anyway.

The problem is modern trains are more suseptible to snow ingress into the traction motors,and also freezing the brakes on,remember the eurostars which broke down a few years ago for many hours trapping lots of customers on board.Due to snow filters not being fitted.

tbh most weather presenters tend to be massively pessimistic after Michael Foot’s gaffe in 1987……

after Michael Foot’s gaffe in 1987…..

He’ll never live down that Donkey Jacket thing will he 🙂

Current forecast on News24 is giving an area stretching along the welsh border up and up into lancashire as “the area most likely to see travel disruption” on friday. You haven’t actually said were you are travelling to and from have you Molly?

Sky what ever happens to be on really but as a general rule none as they can’t get it right anyway

They called the previous snow bang on IIRC.

You haven’t actually said were you are travelling to and from have you Molly?

Yes I did 🙂

Daily Mail reckon you shouldn’t even leave your house on Friday!

They called the previous snow bang on IIRC.

it’s the same as usual surely- the cost of winterproofing the network is higher than the cost of having it fall apart every so often.

Drac, don’t make me dig out stats to make you look silly….

Digging out stats, oh dear.

Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures.
Evan Esar

Definition of being a dick: Drac

Mol Grips

Just because it is possible to use statistics to hoodwink idiots, doens’t mean all stats are rubbish, does it?

Just because it is possible to use statistics to hoodwink idiots, doens’t mean all stats are rubbish, does it?

Dunno. Got any stats to back that up?

Wow is it passed your bedtime, you do realise I was having some friendly banter with you? I guess not.

He’ll never live down that Donkey Jacket thing will he

lol

John Kettley is a weather man, a weather man…

Sorry Drac.

There has been snow on the ground and trains I’ve been using (First TPE/ Northern) have been running well – even arriving early… it should snow more often as it seems to make the trains run better…

Statistically we have a 70% chance of snow. There is also a 73% chance it might be between 2inch and 6 inch in depth. I have a 100% chance of working from home and going sledging (if I am in the area it snows in)

So in summary, statistically it might snow

No worries Grips, I can see why your eager to know. Getting home to your family is rather high priority, hope you get home safe and trouble free.

The depth of snow would have to be really deep to actually stop trains running , that said frozen points are a problem and obviously if traincrew cant get to work Its more likely to affect service. Trains will run later as when the snow is deep you have to do running brake tests every 3-5 minutes to check your brakes are still work , this obviously slows journey times down. I’d rather drive a train in snow than in leaf fall season as all though it joked about its **** scary trying to stop a train when there is heavy leaf fall.
I’d say at worst you may find trains that are normally quarterly will go to half hourly.

Well, I managed to get out of tomorrow, so I’m on my way home. Snow day tomorrow! 🙂