French trains resume, worry about snow flake intake and unprecedented cold (freezing) in Winter
Bill Bonde {Colourless green ideas don't sleep furiously)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/huge-queues-build-as-eurostar-trains-resume-1847528.html
#begin quote
Passengers left stranded by the Eurostar snow saga reacted with
anger today as rail bosses resumed services - but told them they
were still not guaranteed to get home for Christmas.
Travellers queued in their thousands to board the first journeys
out of St Pancras International after three days of cancellations.
Amid chaotic scenes at the station, some spoke of their frustration
that they were not guaranteed a seat, saying bosses still had "a
lot to answer for".
The first batch of trains left the station as planned and services
would operate on a "shuttle basis" to get as many people across the
Channel as possible, a Eurostar spokeswoman said.
But when asked whether ticket-holders were guaranteed to get home
in time for December 25, she said: "I cannot guarantee that, no."
Marc Stevens, 39, his wife and 18-month-old daughter were among
thousands stuck after havoc was caused when snow got into the
electrics of a number of trains.
#end quote
Earl Evleth
{Colourless green ideas don't sleep furiously)"
<tribuylt...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Travellers are still "not guaranteed to get home":
>
Yes and have to sleep at the airport
*****
Luton Airport passengers forced to sleep overnight in the terminal
By Sarah Gordon
Last updated at 5:22 PM on 22nd December 2009
Furious passengers are complaining that they had to sleep overnight at Luton
Airport without any refreshments after a large number of flights were
cancelled last night.
The airport's main airline, easyJet, cancelled over 50 flights from Luton
alone between yesterday afternoon and this morning, and other airlines were
also grounded leaving hundreds of holidaymakers stranded.
The worst affected of the London Airports worked through the night to clear
the runway of heavy snow but passengers were left fuming at a lack of
information provided.
Grounded: The deep snow at Luton Airport cause many flights to be delayed
They claimed that airport staff offered little help or sympathy as many
travellers were forced to bed down in the terminal for the night.
Nicky Tiller, 24, a government researcher from Tottenham, had her flight to
Dublin cancelled and slept on the airport floor. She said: 'It was absolute
chaos last night. All of a sudden every single flight was cancelled and we
were not told what to do.
'The lucky people were the ones who got the benches. We ended up on the
floor. There were children crying and noise all night. I didn't get much
sleep. I can't believe a little bit of snow has caused all this.'
Student Elisa Hidalgo, 25, who was due to fly to Paris, said: 'It has been
an awful night. We had to sleep lying on our backpacks in front of Burger
King on the dirty floor. We got here at 1pm yesterday afternoon and they
told us that the flight was going to be cancelled and we just had to wait.'
Today Luton staff said that the snowfall was extremely heavy which is why
the airport was closed until shortly before 6.30am this morning.
Explaining why so many people may have stayed at the airport overnight, a
spokesperson said: 'The snow really was very heavy in the Luton area, people
may have had trouble finding hotels due to high demand and they may even
have struggled to travel home due to the weather conditions, resulting in
them choosing to stay at the airport.'
The airport put on additional staff throughout the day to deal with the
growing problem, but the spokesperson claimed that information on flights
and cancellations should have come from the airlines.
Delays: Crowds built up at Luton Airport as flights were cancelled due to
snow
Agata Agniewicz, 28, a restaurant manager who was due to fly home to Warsaw
for Christmas, could not understand the amount of trouble caused by the snow
or the seeming indifference of staff.
She said: 'The airport staff have been really unhelpful. I slept on the cold
floor. Nobody asked us if we were OK. We didn't get any blankets or any food
or water and the shops here are really expensive.
'They should be prepared for snow. The weather gets a lot worse than this in
Poland and everything works.'
However, not all passengers were caught out completely unprepared. One
couple, Jerome Sauvage and Maria Veracruz, erected a hammock they had used
on their travels in the arrivals lounge. They had been on a four-month trip
round Asia and were due to return home to Murcia.
Ms Veracruz said: 'Our family was waiting for us at the airport. It seems
like all the Ryanair staff disappeared here and in Spain. Compared with
other people our night wasn't too bad.'
Luton was not the only airport to infuriate passengers caught out by the bad
weather.
Many travellers stuck at Gatwick Airport were also fuming at the apparent
lack of care shown by staff after mass cancellations.
As flights were grounded the concourses became packed with passengers
waiting for� news on when they could expect to fly out.
easyJet called for calm via Twitter, tweeting: 'We do not intend to make
anyone angry we are trying our best to assist.', and warning passengers that
they may struggle to get through to anyone on the customer services line.
However, Monarch reverted to a simpler mass communication technique,
reportedly announcing that all flights up until Christmas were fully booked
so customers on cancelled flights had no option but to call a reservations
line in the morning and organise a flight with another airline.
Later in the evening, one passenger who still had a sense of humour, posted
a note on the window of the closed information kiosk.
It read: 'For Your Information: We've Gone Home'.
Donna Evleth
> From: Earl Evleth <evl...@wanadoo.fr>
> Organization: les newsgroups par Orange
> Newsgroups: alt.activism.death-penalty
> Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:35:39 +0100
> Subject: Luton, Gatwick infuriated passengers
I don't understand the problem. Bill Bonde told us that the airplanes fly
above the snow:-)
Donna Evleth
>
>
Bill Bonde {Colourless green ideas don't sleep furiously)
I said that they *try* to fly above the snow. But easyJet is mostly
Airbus aircraft, so you can expect trouble from the snow there too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easyjet
#begin quote
EasyJet has 88 outstanding options with Airbus which may be taken
as any member of the Airbus A320 family.[40]
EasyJet still operates the Boeing 737-700 from its bases at London
Luton and Belfast, however from December 2006 the airline started
to return the Boeing 737-700 aircraft to their lessors. The Belfast
base is currently in the process of being converted to an Airbus
A319 operation, 5 Airbus A319 are being phrased in over the winter
months and a sixth will be based at Belfast at the end of March
2010, and as of February 2009 two A319 aircraft are stationed
there, six Airbus A319 and two Airbus A320 aircraft are now based
at Luton. EasyJet plan to have disposed of its entire Boeing 737
fleet by 2011.[41]
#end quote
--
Tiger tells eleven mistresses, "I will leave my wife for you."
Earl Evleth
> I said that they *try* to fly above the snow.
Right, airports are from where the planes leave from
and the planes can't take off.
The problem with Eurostar was not the train stations nor
snow on the line but going into the tunnel. That glitch
can and will be fixed, the problems of weather and airports
will never be.
Years ago before the TGV we took a flight on a cheapie
airline from Beauvais to Gatwick. We decided to fly
because it avoided an 8 hour total trip o taking
the train to Calais, boating over to England
and the train on into London. The plane also avoids
rough weather on the channel. From Paris to Beauvais is
a short bus trip. We got to Beauvais alright but
the airport was fogged and remained so for hours, by
the time we got to London, the total time spent
traveling was 10 hours.
The TGV to London is 2 hours and 15 mintues and it
worked well that last several times was used it.
We will use it again. Flying between Paris and London
is absurd. The fast train from Heathrow in the London
is damn expensive, about $30 one way. Eurostars station
is a short distance from the hotel we normally use.
John Rennie
snip
> We got to Beauvais alright
'all right' all right?
Earl Evleth
"John Rennie" <john-...@talktalk.net> wrote:
>> We got to Beauvais alright
>
> 'all right' all right?
both, fortunately not alnight