SEVERE WEATHER (Hansard, 16 May 1991)

§ The Minister of State, Department of Transport (Lord Brabazon of Tara)

My right honourable friend's review of the current arrangements for dealing with severe winter weather, which he announced to the House on 10th December (Hansard, vol. 182, col. 685), has now been completed; I am placing a copy of the report in the Library of the House.

The review has included consultation with the French, Dutch, German, Swiss, Danish and Swedish railways, and with highway authorities in France and Denmark, as well as with the Scottish Office Environment Department and, in England, the police, the department's agents for highway maintenance and British Rail.

The review finds that in the period of 7th to 9th December serious problems were caused, particularly in the Midlands and the North, by a combination of strong winds and heavy, sticky snow which caused power lines and trees to collapse, blocking many roads and railways, and causing widespread power failures. The heavy drifting snow, exacerbated by heavy rain immediately beforehand, which washed away much of the salt that had been spread in anticipation, quickly trapped vehicles, blocking roads and hampering ploughing operations. The conditions were exceptional; the Met Office suggest they may occur only once every 15 to 20 years.

Over the weekend of 9th and 10th February, temperatures were extremely low and snow was again heavy in several regions. This time the snow was light and dry, which is not common in Britain. Motorways and trunk roads were generally kept open. However, serious problems were experienced on parts of the railway network; the blown powdery snow was able to enter mechanical and electrical equipment, and the low temperatures caused equipment to freeze up. Damage to 455 electric train motors meant that it took three weeks for Network SouthEast services to get back to normal.

Our review of European comparisons shows that other countries also suffered severe disruption. On the roads other countries generally fared no better in dealing with similar conditions. For instance, traffic in Belgium was brought to "a virtual standstill" on 12th February in the Brussels and Antwerp regions in particular. In Germany on 15th and 16th February there was "a total breakdown of traffic throughout the Federal Republic", with tailbacks of more than 100 kilometres. And in Holland on 15th February "traffic everywhere was snarled up", with about 13 jams totalling around 90 kilometres.

The severe spells also caused considerable immediate disruption to rail services. For example, in Holland there was serious disruption to services on 8th February and their emergency timetable was implemented. In France, powder snow got into the convertors of the RER trains in Paris and caused a complete line to close. In Germany, Frankfurt Main station was virtually cut off on 15th February, and elsewhere delays of up to three hours were quite frequent. In Denmark, there were major problems 75WA with the Copenhagen suburban services, with some 300 out of 500 trains being put out of service as a result of traction motor failures.

We are acting on the lessons provided by these experiences and what we have learned from other countries. One lesson is that rail services in other countries visited, apart from Denmark, appear to have got back to normal faster than in Britain on this occasion.

A lesson that is common to both roads and railways is the need to improve communications systems and equipment, including an ability to continue functioning through a prolonged power failure. Better communications are needed within the relevant authorities with travellers who are already on the road or rail system and with intending travellers before they set off.

Specific improvements on the roads include a sharpening up of the arrangements to remove broken down vehicles (on which we did well in the February episode); an examination of the operational readiness of equipment; and a review of the levels of manpower and salt available to deal with possible longer spells of extreme conditions. We shall be considering with the emergency services procedures for helping vehicle occupants trapped during severe conditions. It is planned to have these actions substantially complete before next winter. We shall also review operational procedures in the light of practice overseas, including the rate of spread of salt and the level of selectivity in salting roads; and we shall examine additional sources of manpower and equipment—we found that both France and Denmark make greater use of contractors and farmers than we do.

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On the railways, operational responsibility lies with British Rail. We found that railways that used sliding doors experienced similar problems to BR; but most European railways use plug doors, and had no problems. BR now intends all the new types of stock to have plug doors. Our study also showed that other railways made more extensive use of point heaters; BR now has a programme to install many more modern point heaters. BR also now intends to test the first production vehicle of all new fleets for temperature extremes, which was the general practice of the railways visited. We also established that diesel fuel that can cope with lower temperatures than that presently used by BR—down to—22?C (Germany),—25?C (Holland) or even—32?C (Sweden) can be obtained, at a premium; BR is now examining the cost-effectiveness of this.

Other improvements being examined in the light of what we learned overseas to see if they would be cost-effective in this country include modifications to existing sliding doors, preventing electric motors failing as a result of powder snow getting into them and using covers on automatic couplers. British Rail is updating its guidance to staff on how to keep equipment working and services running in severe winter weather. It is also preparing emergency service plans, to be published in advance. These will improve communications with the customer. It will also be introducing a pilot real time information system on two routes this summer.

I shall continue to monitor progress, and I shall make a further report to the House in due course.