Closure of airports raises travel concerns

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...285992475.html

Closure of airports raises travel concerns
TIM O'BRIEN

DUBLIN AIRPORT closed for a period last night, raising concerns about the effects of the weather on Christmas travel plans as almost one million passengers were scheduled to travel through the Republic’s airports over the holidays.

In Shannon, hundreds of stranded airline passengers spent a third unscheduled night in the midwest after their flights were grounded on Saturday when Heathrow airport was closed by snow.

The closure of Heathrow resulted in flights from Nigeria, Japan, Canada and the US diverting to Shannon. More than 2,300 travellers spent Saturday and Sunday night in hotels across Clare and Limerick, providing a welcome boost for hoteliers, shops and bus operators in the region.

Passengers have been strongly advised to consult their airlines before travelling to airports because of knock-on delays.

Ryanair put on a number of extra flights in an attempt to clear the backlog yesterday, but Aer Arann had to cancel a number of its services, including Ireland West Airport Knock to Dublin, Sligo to Dublin and Dublin to Sligo.

Ireland West airport said it expected to see 20,000 passengers use the airport in the week to December 24th, divided equally between inbound and outbound.

With weather conditions at the airports at best uncertain over the coming days, Stena Line issued a statement saying it had experienced a “substantial” increase in passengers travelling on its Irish Sea routes over the last few days.

Communications manager Eamonn Hewitt said from December 20th to January 5th, the shipping line would carry 108,000 passengers across five Irish Sea routes – 45,000 of whom would be on the Dublin Port to Holyhead and Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead routes, and 16,000 on the Rosslare to Fishguard route.

He said all sailings were operating as scheduled and Stena Line had brought in extra staff to help accommodate the uplift in customers.

Passengers should not leave booking to the last minute.

A spokeswoman for Irish Ferries said as the company was a plc, it was not appropriate to give passenger numbers. Passengers may access up-to-date information on irishferries.ie, where there is a link to the company’s Twitter page.

Barry Kenny of Iarnród Éireann said all services were expected to operate over the next few days. He said the company expected to carry about 300,000 people home for Christmas on its routes.

Bus Éireann said most of its services were expected to run, but passengers were asked to check in advance, particularly on routes affected by bad weather. It would make every effort to maintain as many services as possible over the coming week, subject to road and weather conditions.

It expected to provide more than 250,000 passenger journeys over the holiday period. Intending passengers were asked to visit transport.ie or buseireann.ie or contact their local travel centre for latest information on service changes.

The Garda has repeated advice to motorists not to travel unless strictly necessary and to keep to main roads where possible.

The National Roads Authority said there were sufficient salt supplies with about 8,000 tonnes in reserve nationally. It said it took about 2,000 tonnes to grit principal roads nightly and that a fresh shipment of salt would arrive in Cork tomorrow. It said some 25,000 tonnes would be available to service roads over Christmas.

Fine Gael transport spokesman Simon Coveney has asked the Oireachtas Committee on Transport to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the issue of salt for gritting the roads. He said the authority had a number of questions to answer on the management of salt supplies in the recent cold spells.

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...285992511.html

Around the country
A round-up of conditions countrywide

THE NORTH

Northern Ireland continued to be badly hit by the freezing conditions with a record low temperature of -18 degrees recorded in Castlederg, Co Tyrone, on Sunday night.

The snow, ice and freezing fog caused havoc on roads around Northern Ireland, particularly non-main roads. Train and bus services were also disrupted.

More than 500 schools were closed with several deciding to call their Christmas holidays early because of the continuing severe conditions.

Belfast International Airport, George Best Belfast City Airport and City of Derry Airport managed to remain open yesterday, but there were cancellations and delays.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service is suspending transport for non-emergency patients today. Postal services are badly affected, with Royal Mail hoping to arrange additional deliveries to try to clear the backlog.

SDLP Assembly member Conall McDevitt called for the creation of a special Northern Executive task force to try to address a range of problems created by the adverse weather conditions.

Sinn Féin Minister for Regional Development Conor Murphy argued that there was little point in such a response as the various departments were already involved in a range of measures to try to keep services running. GERRY MORIARTY


GALWAY-MAYO

Plummeting temperatures in the west have resulted in a record low of minus 17 degrees being record in Straide, Foxford, Co Mayo.

Large flocks of hungry redwings have been sighted in urban areas of Galway and Mayo, as distressed birds try to forage for food and water.

Local authorities have appealed for water conservation and have asked householders to check on neighbours who may be sick or elderly or living alone.

Temperatures did not rise above minus 3 degrees at the height of sunshine in Galway, resulting in black ice and very risky driving conditions, even on roads that are gritted.

A shortage of salt is affecting efforts by Mayo County Council to treat roads in the region. Supplies are being conserved for major routes only. Mayo county secretary John Condon has warned of fresh difficulties when the thaw comes – the problem of burst water pipes.

“Water supplies could come under pressure because of burst pipes,” Mr Condon said. “In order to avoid the possibility of water rationing over Christmas, we are asking people to conserve water.”

Public transport is running on all routes, but with some delays and diversions. Most schools remained open in Galway city yesterday, but some county schools were forced to close. LORNA SIGGINS and TOM SHIEL

MIDLANDS

Although temperatures remained sub-zero around the midlands yesterday, local authorities have kept main roads open even with dwindling salt stocks. Met Éireann recorded overnight temperatures of minus 10.6 in Mullingar yesterday, where Westmeath County Council warned motorists that its mixture of grit and salt was not as effective as pure salt.

Both Offaly and Westmeath County Council are urging residents to conserve water during the cold spell. They have asked that residents desist from running taps to prevent pipes from freezing.

KERRY

Kerry County Council wants to regain control of salt supplies from the National Roads Authority, and organise its own supplies in 2011, according to the Kerry county manager.

The NRA took over control of the supplies this year.

Manager Tom Curran said at a council meeting that during this cold spell the local authority had little or no control over where and when it could obtain supplies.

Last week it had to send two trucks to Greenore, Co Louth, for 60 tonnes of salt, which was only enough for one night.

Mr Curran said he was not at all satisfied with the service under the NRA and the council was to look at ways of obtaining its own salt supplies in future.

“At the moment, we are limited to where the NRA will allow us to purchase salt. The NRA has a framework agreement in place and local authorities are told where to get their salt,” Mr Curran told the meeting. The council did not have the same problems with salt shortages last winter because it controlled its own salt supplies, he said.

So far this winter, Kerry has spent €750,000 in dealing with adverse road conditions due to the weather, including overtime and machinery and other materials. ANN LUCEY

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...285992475.html

Chaos as flights cancelled and rail services disrupted
MARK HENNESSY, London Editor

EUROPE: HEAVY SNOWFALLS have caused chaos throughout Europe, with large numbers of flights cancelled and major disruptions on roads and railways, with forecasters warning that it is not likely to improve significantly anywhere on the Continent by Christmas Day.

Heathrow airport was affected for the third day in a row, leading British transport secretary Philip Hammond to order a relaxation on the night-flying ban from the airport.

Outbound flights will now be allowed to leave until 1am, while inbound will be taken at any hour over the next four days.

In France, three-in-ten flights to all destinations were cancelled from the two largest airports in Paris, while the authorities banned HGV trucks and coaches from all roads in northern France and around Paris. Eurostar services to London have been badly affected.

Thousands of Eurostar passengers in both London and Paris were affected, with the company taking delayed passengers first on the trains that could get away, to the fury of those left behind. Speed restrictions are now in place.

Lines of delayed passengers trailed for several hundred metres outside London’s St Pancras international rail station despite freezing temperatures, with the company – which is turning away passengers with confirmed bookings — urging travellers to cancel or postpone journeys.

In Germany, hundreds of flights were affected, leading Frankfurt airport to put up 1,000 camp beds for stranded passengers and employ clowns and entertainers to keep children amused. German State Railways said many services have been hit by major delays. Refunds are being offered to encourage travellers to postpone their journeys.

In the Netherlands, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport managed to get back to full services yesterday, following the cancellation of 100 flights on Saturday and 70 on Sunday. All long-distance flights took off, though some with minor delays. Unlike London, passengers who could not get a hotel bed from their airline were given camp beds, but only dozens took up the offer.

Flights connecting Spain with France, Germany, Italy and the UK were most affected by the weather during the early hours of yesterday morning.

Twenty-four flights to Germany were cancelled, 55 to France, four to Italy and 85 to the UK, showing that the major problems at Heathrow are now having an impact throughout the world as aircraft shortages in operating airports build up.

In the UK, thousands of part-time postal workers have been hired to help get letters and parcels delivered on time, though private postal companies have simply refused to guarantee delivery.

In Sweden, local newspapers reported a sharp rise in the numbers of thefts of snowblowers used to clear paths and driveways.

[dowlingm]

I'm booked YYZ-LHR-ORK arriving 1520 Dec 24. Talk about low margin for error... now if Brian Cowen wanted a point or two in the polls he'd order that overpaid nonce Declan Collier to keep DUB, ORK and SNN open on the 25th to accept delayed flights from Europe.

[Colm Moore]

I think Shannon is always open - for Aeroflot.

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

I'm booked YYZ-LHR-ORK arriving 1520 Dec 24. Talk about low margin for error...

Good luck. You'll need it.

[Thomas J Stamp]

whatever about the airport runways, the sheer lack of planning and foresight for the - and let us be real about this - small amounts of snow that we have suffered this past month just beggers belief. A sensibler gritting and clearing schedule would result in most of the travel chaos we have encountered being eliminated.

the fact that a caller onto the radio this morning could say that it took her four hours to get from Baggott Street to Goatstown is the sort of thing you would expect to hear in a bizzare satirical sitcom. whilst it is heartening to hear that, once again, salt will arrive in bulk after the cold snap you have to ask if they only look for these deliveries in winter and why not use the rest of the year to stock up.

this is not to mention the fact that we have several salt quarries in this ocuntry who have been on the media in the last snow "event" back in January offering to help and wondering why the local authorities nor the NRA havent bothered to order anything from them. In other words turn up, we will fill you up in a few hours and off you go.

another fairly simple thing: i have only seen one gritting lorry down here with a plough on it. one. surely it is not that hairbrained an idea to have them all fitted. putting grit on snow is a waste. yet another fairly simple thing is to grit the hilly and busy parts of the urban areas - again we keep hearing of the usual blackspots in dublin.

the levels of red tape and inertia at official levels here is quite staggering. last month, the farmers of Kilkenny pleaded with the county council to allow them to spread the grit using slurry sprayers and their tracters, as the council lorries could not cope. Almost every farmer in the midlands has one. The council had to wait for the advice opf the attorney general to be given (and sought in an orderly manner) to the national emergency committee who then had to pass it down to the council before the council would decide on the matter. Just why the council has its own legal department and a firm of solicitors who handle their work for is beyond me. In the event it took over a week for a decision to be made, luckily the snow had decided to start to melt in the meanwhile.

It is no wonder that everyone I know from Estern europe and the states are laughing whenever i talk to them about this.

As for railways: point heaters. That is all that is really affecting things out here. Simple as.

[James Howard]

I went to get some coal today and you know what - the coal merchant hadn't run out of coal. On the contrary, he had a huge great pile of it and a big smile on his face.

Odd that the public sector with all its resources can't be similarly prepared.

[Mark Gleeson]

Irish Rail is cleaning up with passengers at the moment as the train while delayed is running

There was a long queue at the booking office in Dun Laoghaire at 8:15pm last night, queue at 8:30am today was out virtually to the street.

Currently -7 to -10 in Dublin and snowing since 9:20am in the city centre. Weather radar suggests at least an other hour to come.

4 to 8 inches on the ground currently

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Thomas J Stamp

this is not to mention the fact that we have several salt quarries in this ocuntry who have been on the media in the last snow "event" back in January offering to help and wondering why the local authorities nor the NRA havent bothered to order anything from them. In other words turn up, we will fill you up in a few hours and off you go.

Eh, AFAIK the only salt mine is in Larne. big difference between salt and the grit that quarries supply.

[Thomas J Stamp]

we're not using them though

[Thomas Ralph]

Grit won't melt snow. It's pretty useless on it in fact.

However, you're getting on far better rail-wise than we are; London-area trains are being haphazardly cancelled and short-formed. I was on a 4-car train yesterday which service is normally 10- or 12-car with standees. Not at all pleasant.

In fairness to IÉ they've kept the show admirably on the road through this and the last round of snow.

[Mark Gleeson]

It does help that the IE fleet is by nature 4 to 5 times more reliable than UK equivalents

[neoncircles]

Originally Posted by Colm Moore

I think Shannon is always open - for Aeroflot.

It is indeed open Christmas Day- the Aeroflot days are long gone though!

A few years back when Centralwings were in operation they had 4 flights on xmas day

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph

However, you're getting on far better rail-wise than we are; London-area trains are being haphazardly cancelled and short-formed. I was on a 4-car train yesterday which service is normally 10- or 12-car with standees. Not at all pleasant

There was a woman on the radio yesterday who did sail-rail from London and she had to stand in first class (she didn't say what ticket she had).

[Thomas Ralph]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

It does help that the IE fleet is by nature 4 to 5 times more reliable than UK equivalents

Well yes, I'd prefer an 8500 DART to a 465 Networker any day (unless I need the loo). And don't get me started on frozen third rails.

However, keeping public transport running is not an obscure art-form. Some of my family was in Sweden over the weekend and there was not a train cancellation in sight, and the only planes going wrong were where the other end was closed.

[Colm Moore]

This is odd as there seems to be under-track heating on this section (it was bone dry yesterday lunchtime when everywhere else was covered with frost, ice or just wet).

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...8.html?start=2

Patrol car hits garda van amid arrest
By Brendan Farrelly
Tuesday December 21 2010

A GARDA patrol car went into a skid during a snow shower yesterday and slammed into the door of a garda transit van as other officers were making an arrest.

The incident happened on Abbey Street, Dublin, shortly after gardai had arrested a woman. It is understood that gardai were trying to put the woman into the back of the van when a patrol car arrived at the scene and went into a skid.

The accident happened shortly after 5pm. One man, who works nearby, said two gardai and the woman ended up stuck between the vehicles.

He said the woman ended up on the ground. "She was already on crutches," he added.

It is understood nobody was seriously hurt. The Luas service between Tallaght and the city centre stopped in Smithfield as gardai dealt with the situation.

...

- Brendan Farrelly
Irish Independent

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Colm Moore

This is odd as there seems to be under-track heating on this section (it was bone dry yesterday lunchtime when everywhere else was covered with frost, ice or just wet).

I had another look at this today. The persistently dry section seems to be from O'Connell street to past Independent House - where the trams loiter, waiting for a go signal, presumably the heat from the tram keeps the area warm. Further west, the snow gets partially melted and then refreezes. So that seems to explain that..

[Colm Moore]

Extra Ryanair flights

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1222/weather.html

1350 Extra Ryanair flights Thursday 23 December

Brussels - Dublin
Dublin - Brussels
Dublin - Edinburgh
Dublin - Liverpool
Dublin - London Stansted
Dublin - Paris (x2)
Dublin - Poznan
Edinburgh - Dublin
Liverpool - Dublin
London Stansted - Dublin (x2)
Paris - Dublin
Poznan - Dublin

http://www.ryanair.com/ie/notices/go...GHTS_23DEC_-GB

RYANAIR EXTRA FLIGHTS ON THURSDAY 23 DEC

Passengers on cancelled flights, can move free of charge onto the extra flights listed below.

CLICK HERE TO REBOOK FREE ONLINE: to rebook to the same destination airport on an alternative flight free of charge, subject to seat availability.

PLEASE NOTE: If your booking has a return flight included which has not been cancelled and you have already checked in for that flight, you will NOT be able to transfer your return flight online to a different date. If you wish to do this you will need to call our reservation centre - see below for contact details .

CLICK HERE FOR RESERVATION CENTRES NUMBERS

Click HERE for a written notice setting out the rules for compensation and assistance in line with EU Regulation 261/2004. This EU261/04 notice is also available at all Ryanair Ticket Desks at all airports.

EXTRA FLIGHTS OPERATING THURSDAY 23 DECEMBER

23/12/2010
Flight No. Departure Airport Arrival Airport Dep. Arr.
FR 81 BRUSSELS CHARLEROI DUBLIN 1720 1805
FR 84 DUBLIN PARIS BEAUVAIS 1000 1235
FR 90 DUBLIN PARIS BEAUVAIS 1035 1315
FR 80 DUBLIN BRUSSELS CHARLEROI 1400 1645
FR 94 DUBLIN POZNAN 1505 1835
FR 82 DUBLIN LONDON STANSTED 1840 1950
FR 93 EDINBURGH DUBLIN 1340 1440
FR 87 GLASGOW PRESTWICK DUBLIN 1515 1600
FR 99 LIVERPOOL DUBLIN 1210 1305
FR 97 LONDON STANSTED DUBLIN 0855 1015
FR 83 LONDON STANSTED DUBLIN 2015 2125
FR 85 PARIS BEAUVAIS DUBLIN 1305 1340
FR 91 PARIS BEAUVAIS DUBLIN 1345 1430
FR 95 POZNAN DUBLIN 1900 2040