A SIBERIAN snow blast sweeping the UK is causing major travel disruption on Britain’s roads, railways and airports.

Hundreds of train services and flights have been cancelled as "The Beast from the East" brings heavy snow showers and -10c temperatures – with the chaos set to continue all week.

Southeastern trains has advised commuters to get home by 6pm tonight, saying heavier snow expected later this evening is likely to cause severe travel disruption.

All Greater Anglia trains will stop by 10pm tonight and a reduced service will operate during the day tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday.

From tomorrow, Greater Anglia services serving Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich, Colchester and Stratford will all be affected.

Shuttle service will operate from Braintree, Clacton and Sudbury.

All other services will run with a less frequent or slower service until Thursday.

Rail operator Greater Anglia has apologised after 228 trains were cancelled due to the weather conditions.

Service delivery director Richard Dean said: "The last time such heavy snow fell in this region was over 25 years ago.

"In extreme conditions such as these, we work hard with Network Rail to keep key routes open, using snow ploughs, points heaters and mobilising all staff to clear snow off platforms and heat up and de-ice trains."

He added: "If the forecasts prove wrong, we will of course, do everything possible to get services up and running as soon as possible."

IS YOUR TRAIN AFFECTED?

SOUTHEASTERN:

Passengers have been advised to complete journeys by 6pm tonight as heavy snow is expected to cause major travel disruption later in the evening.

TfL RAIL:

Services suspended from 11pm – the service will resume at 7am tomorrow and only a very limited service of 6 trains per hour will run between London Liverpool Street and Shenfield. Services are expected to be extremely busy.

C2C:

A normal timetable will operate until 9pm, followed by a number of alterations and cancellations.

Trains from Shoeburyness to London Liverpool Street will not run after 9.40pm.

Trains from London Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness will not run after 11pm

There will be no C2C services at London Liverpool Street or Stratford stations this evening.

After 9pm, services from London Fenchurch Street to Southend Central will all at all stations to Shoeburyness.

Services between Southend Central and London Fenchurch Street will terminate at Barking.

No service between Upminster and Pitsea after 11.50pm

No service between Barking and Shoeburyness, and Upminster and Shoeburyness after midnight

No services between Grays and Barking in both directions after 11pm

A special service will operate on C2C routes tomorrow – customers are advised to check before travelling

GREATER ANGLIA AND STANSTED EXPRESS:

Services end at 10pm tonight, and a limited service will operate from 6am-10pm tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday.

No service tomorow between the following stations:

Norwich and Sheringham, Norwich and Great Yarmouth, Norwich and Lowestoft, Ipswich and Felixstowe, Ipswich and Lowestoft, Colchester and Colchester Town, Stratford and Tottenham Hale

Shuttle train service only between the following stations:

Braintree and Witham, Harwich and Manningtree, Thorpe-le-Soken and Walton-on-the-Naze, Hertford East and Broxbourne, Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, Southminster and Wickford, Marks Tey and Sudbury

A reduced or slower service at the following today, finishing at 10pm tonight. Limited service resumes at 6am tomorrow:

Norwich / Ipswich / Colchester and London Liverpool Street, Southend Victoria and London Liverpool Street, Cambridge / Stansted Airport and London Liverpool Street, Norwich and Cambridge, Ipswich and Cambridge / Peterborough, Cambridge and London Liverpool Street, Stansted Express: Stansted Airport and London Liverpool Street

GATWICK EXPRESS AND SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY:
Customers are strongly advised to check before travelling.

GREAT NORTHERN:

Last train from London Kings Cross to Cambridge at 10.04pm. Service restrictions relaxed allowing passengers to travel earlier in the day.

Heavily reduced service tomorrow – customers advised to check before travelling.

C2C trains to and from London are expected to operate normally until 9pm tonight, with passengers warned to expect service alterations and cancellations thereafter.

Trains across Essex, including in Laindon, Rainham and Ockendon, will have a heavily reduced service and passengers are advised to check their final departures online.

Rail chiefs have placed emergency 4×4 vehicles on standby to rescue stranded trains on frozen tracks.

Bosses at Arriva Trains Wales – the biggest rail operator in Wales – said stations would be gritted but passengers need to take extra time for their journeys.

Bethan Jelfs, Customer Services Director, said: “We know we’ll be seeing very poor weather conditions this week and we are working closely with our partners in Network Rail to be prepared for it and to minimise any disruption.

“In order to keep our customers and colleagues safe we may need to make last minute alterations to some services.

“Customers should take extra care on their way to and from stations, and while our staff will be gritting wherever possible, it is likely conditions will be very icy so please be careful and allow yourself extra time to get to your station if possible.

“We will be doing everything we can to keep customers moving safely, but it is really important that customers check before they travel as we will be monitoring the impact of the storm on the network in real time, and the situation may change at short notice depending on the impact of weather."

Bill Kelly, chief operating officer for Network Rail in Wales and Borders said: “Safety is a key priority and we will be implementing our winter plan, with 4×4 vehicles strategically placed across the route, so our people are ready to respond to issues such ice build-up on railheads and frozen points.

"Our workforce is provided with specialist equipment so that they can work safely and effectively in challenging conditions.

"Extra teams will also be on the ground to carry out regular inspections of our infrastructure, to minimise any impact on services.”

The highways department at Kent County Council has declared a snow emergency.

In a tweet, the council said: "KCC Highways have declared a snow emergency due to the current severe weather conditions. All of our resources will be focused on keeping the highways salted, clear and safe."

Following tweets confirmed all primary routes in Kent would be re-gritted by 8pm tonight, with another treatment at 7am tomorrow morning.

LATEST WEATHER NEWS

At least 50 British Airways flights from Heathrow Airport have been cancelled, with passengers advised to check with their individual airline before travelling.

Passengers are also being advised to check before they travel from Gatwick and Stansted.

International flights to Los Angeles, New York, Munich, Paris, Geneva and Milan have all been hit with cancellations.

Domestically, flights to Aberdeen, Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds have also been cancelled.

If your train or plane journey was interrupted by the Siberian temperatures, you may be entitled to some money back.

BA FLIGHTS CANCELLED FROM HEATHROW

10:35am BA0283 Los Angeles (LAX)

10:45am BA926 Munich (MUC)

11:20am BA0173 New York (JFK)

11:35am BA904 Frankfurt (FRA)

11:35am BA974 Hamburg (HAM)

11:45am BA308 Paris (CDG)

11:45am BA562 Milan (LIN)

11:50am BA754 Basel (BSL)

12:10pm BA1308 Aberdeen (ABZ)

12:15pm BA1332 Newcastle (NCL)

12:20pm BA1342 Leeds (LBA)

12:50pm BA438 Amsterdam (AMS)

1:00pm BA716 Zurich (ZRH)

1:25pm BA780 Stockholm (ARN)

1:30pm BA402 Brussels (BRU)

1:35pm BA836 Dublin (DUB)

2:00pm BA722 Geneva (GVA)

2:10pm BA954 Munich (MUC)

2:10pm BA908 Frankfurt (FRA)

2:10pm BA1448 Edinburgh (EDI)

3:00pm BA734 Geneva (GVA)

3:10pm BA1486 Glasgow (GLA)

3:15pm BA1396 Manchester (MAN)

3:35pm BA462 Madrid (MAD)

3:50pm BA944 Dusseldorf (DUS)

4:00pm BA986 Berlin (TXL)

4:40pm BA912 Frankfurt (FRA)

5:50pm BA1492 Glasgow (GLA)

5:55pm BA328 Paris (CDG)

6:20pm BA828 Dublin (DUB)

6:20pm BA1458 Edinburgh (EDI)

6:50pm BA426 Amsterdam (AMS)

7:10pm BA738 Geneva (GVA)

7:10pm BA756 Basel (BSL)

7:15pm BA720 Zurich (ZRH)

7:40pm BA376 Toulouse (TLS)

Highways England has issued a severe weather warning for tomorrow, when the worst of the snow is expected to fall.

It covers the North East, Midlands and East of England.

It says: “Road users are advised to take extra care when travelling in snowy conditions: allow plenty of time to complete your journey and consider whether your journey is absolutely necessary before setting out, by first checking the very latest forecast and road conditions.”

The latest updates and alerts are posted at the Traffic England website.

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