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LONDON - The first snow of winter in London disrupted rail and road travel around the capital today as transport chiefs accused Underground contractors of failing to prepare for icy weather.
Early morning commuters faced severe delays on many London underground lines as well as disruption on many surface rail routes to the south of the capital.
Southeastern rail said it expected delays to continue into the afternoon as its website crashed from a flood of passenger queries.
There were also problems on South West Trains where snowy conditions led to points failures.
Transport for London (TfL) said Metronet, which maintains two-thirds of the tube network, had continued with engineering work rather than run special trains to clear snow and ice.
"Cold weather and a threat of snow were forecast and Metronet chose not to undertake the necessary prevention work overnight," TfL said.
Metronet maintained it had run trains to de-ice conductor rails overnight but said most delays were caused by frozen points.
It said it would check all point-heaters on Wednesday night as well as running de-icing trains.
Heathrow and Gatwick said they were operating as normal but advised travellers to allow extra time for their journeys to the airports.
"It's the first real taste of winter", said a Met Office spokesman.
A light covering of snow fell overnight across London, Oxfordshire and parts of East Anglia, with temperatures dipping to around 2 to 3 degrees Celsius.
Europe
Three people were killed as snow and ice caused travel chaos across Europe, halting trains and planes and cutting off electricity to thousands of homes.
In Germany, icy roads caused multiple accidents, killing three people and injuring dozens, police said.
In the southern city of Stuttgart, about a thousand airline passengers were stranded overnight as 70 flights were cancelled due to heavy snowfall, the airport said.
In Britain, the first snow of winter disrupted road and rail travel across the southeast.
Britain's Met office said heavier snowfalls were expected in parts of the southeast on Friday and Saturday.
Temperatures dipped to minus 10 Celsius in parts of France.
About 5,000 vehicles were stranded when the A6 motorway that runs through eastern France was cut off by snow and 200 police and firefighters were sent to help stranded motorists.
Power was cut off to about 85,000 homes in central France and train travel was disrupted.
In Austria's Carinthia province 12,000 homes lost electricity when heavy snow toppled trees onto power lines and officials issued an avalanche warning for nearby Alpine mountains.
A blizzard deposited more than a metre of snow within hours, stranding hundreds of vehicles on roads.
But the weather was good news for Europe's ski resorts which have been struggling due to a lack of snow. The cold weather is expected to continue for the rest of the week.
- REUTERS
