Amman, Jan 5 (Petra) - A wave of bitter cold, among the coldest of the current winter, disrupted travel on Monday in Britain, France and the Netherlands, with roads closed, flights suspended and train services cancelled, including the Eurostar.
According to Agence France-Presse, Eurostar, which links the United Kingdom with mainland Europe, asked passengers traveling between London and the Netherlands to postpone their journeys, as trains could not operate beyond Brussels due to poor weather conditions. Six trains between London’s St. Pancras International and Paris’s Gare du Nord were also canceled, with most other services delayed.
The Dutch rail operator NS said its services were severely disrupted on Monday, particularly in the Amsterdam area, with the number of trains reduced in some parts of the country on Tuesday.
The UK Met Office issued new warnings for Monday and Tuesday of snowfall and icy conditions in Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England.
Authorities announced the closure of 212 schools in Northern Ireland, in addition to dozens of schools in Scotland, Wales and northern England.
Flights were canceled at several airports, including Liverpool in northwest England, Aberdeen and Inverness in northeast Scotland, and Belfast in Northern Ireland.
At Paris’s main Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, heavy snowfall forced airlines to cut flights by 15 percent.
French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said at a press conference that around 250 snowplows were on standby at the two airports, warning of likely "cancelations and delays." Snow and ice in Paris disrupted the bus network on Monday afternoon, while roads were severely affected, particularly in northwestern Normandy and the French capital, with heavy traffic congestion during rush hours.
France’s national weather service, Meteo France, issued an orange alert on Monday evening for snow and ice across most of northwestern France, including Paris, the second-highest warning level.
At the Netherlands’ main Schiphol International Airport, around 700 flights were cancelled, more than half of those scheduled to depart or arrive on Monday, amid expectations by airport authorities that air traffic would decline further with additional cancellations in the coming days due to adverse weather.
//Petra// AF
