House of Commons Transport Committee Keeping the UK moving: The impact on transport of the winter weather in December 2010 Fifth Report of Session 2010–12 Volume I Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Additional written evidence is contained in Volume II, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/transcom Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 26 April 2011 HC 794 Published on 12 May 2011 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £17.50 The Transport Committee The Transport Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Transport and its Associate Public Bodies. Current membership Mrs Louise Ellman (Labour/Co-operative, Liverpool Riverside) (Chair) Steve Baker (Conservative, Wycombe) Jim Dobbin (Labour/Co-operative, Heywood and Middleton) Mr Tom Harris (Labour, Glasgow South) Julie Hilling (Labour, Bolton West) Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative, Spelthorne) Mr John Leech (Liberal Democrat, Manchester Withington) Paul Maynard (Conservative, Blackpool North and Cleveleys) Gavin Shuker (Labour/Co-operative, Luton South) Iain Stewart (Conservative, Milton Keynes South) Julian Sturdy (Conservative, York Outer) The following were also members of the committee during the Parliament. Angie Bray (Conservative, Ealing Central and Acton) Lilian Greenwood (Labour, Nottingham South) Kelvin Hopkins (Labour, Luton North) Angela Smith (Labour, Penistone and Stocksbridge) Powers The committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the internet at http://www.parliament.uk/transcom. A list of Reports of the Committee in the present Parliament is at the back of this volume. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Mark Egan (Clerk), Marek Kubala (Second Clerk), David Davies (Committee Specialist), Tony Catinella (Senior Committee Assistant), Edward Faulkner (Committee Assistant), Stewart McIlvenna (Committee Support Assistant) and Hannah Pearce (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Transport Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6263; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 1 Introduction 5 Winter 2010–11: how bad was it? 5 A third severe winter in succession 6 Effective scrutiny 6 2 Preparing better for severe weather 8 Weather forecasting and the impact of climate change 8 Influencing public expectations 10 Voluntary effort 11 Government co-ordination and expenditure 12 Rail: the third rail system south of the Thames 13 Helping airports recover from severe weather disruption 15 Co-ordination between modes 17 Salt 18 3 Information provision and passenger welfare 19 Introduction 19 Rail 19 Aviation 21 Roads 23 4 Conclusion 24 Conclusions and recommendations 26 Formal Minutes 31 Witnesses 32 List of printed written evidence 32 List of additional written evidence 33 List of unprinted evidence 34 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 35 3 Summary Winter 2010–11 was the UK’s third cold winter in succession. December 2010 was particularly cold and snowy, causing extensive disruption to the UK’s transport networks. Most significant was the closure of Heathrow Airport from 18 to 20 December but other airports closed for a time during the month; rail services were badly affected, especially south of the Thames; and there was disruption on the roads. Most dramatically, the severe winter weather reduced the UK’s GDP by 0.5% and we were told that travel disruption cost the UK economy £280 million per day. There is more that could and should be done to ensure that the UK’s transport networks are more resilient to severe winter weather and we are sympathetic to the argument that more money should be spent on this. Areas for additional investment and co-ordination by the Government include: • Improving the resilience of the third rail network south of the Thames. We recommend that the Secretary of State should lead work on this and commit the Government to the long-term aim of replacing the existing network with a more resilient form of electrification. • Having oversight of airport snow plans and other major incident plans, to make sure additional investment in winter resilience is delivered. This is particularly significant in relation to Heathrow, to help maintain its status as an international hub airport. • Publishing online practical advice about how individuals and communities can overcome problems caused by severe winter weather. • Launching a high profile campaign about motorists’ winter preparedness, with the aim of increasing the proportion of motorists taking precautions against severe weather next winter. • Investigating the case for providing the Met Office with additional funding to improve its long-range forecasting capability. We also recommend that the Department’s climate change adaptation plan should include reference to the risk of severe winter weather in future, particularly in view of uncertainties in climate predictions identified by Sir John Beddington, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser. Inadequate information provision was raised by witnesses as an issue for rail, road and air travellers during December 2010. A related issue was passenger welfare, especially for passengers caught up in the disruption at Heathrow. The problems at Heathrow have been thoroughly analysed in a review led by Professor David Begg. The Begg report and the evidence we received from the aviation sector give the impression that Heathrow was totally unprepared to recover from any major incident which necessitated its closure. We agree with the Begg report’s recommendation that airports should develop passenger welfare plans. We would support measures by which airport operators could reclaim the 4 costs of providing support to stranded passengers from airlines which had not discharged their legal responsibilities to look after passengers. We also welcome the Government’s intention to revamp the regulatory regime applying to airports and look forward to scrutinising the draft bill on this. The rail industry needs to do far more to look after the interests of passengers during periods of disruption. Culture change is urgently required: the legacy of privatisation cannot be used to excuse the continuing inability of train companies to provide accurate information to passengers about delays and cancellations. We fully support the Office of Rail Regulation’s initiative to clarify responsibilities for providing accurate information. This should be achieved by next winter: failures in information provision should cost the firms responsible money. Finally, we recommend the development of clearer ‘travel warnings’ to specify more precisely which journeys should not be undertaken in severe weather and consideration of the Freight Transport Association’s suggestion of snow and ice warnings for HGVs, akin to strong wind warnings. We also call on the Highways Agency and police forces to ensure that blockages on the strategic road network are managed more proactively and that greater use is made of roadside information and in-car information systems to provide motorists with real time information about road conditions and disruption. 5 1 Introduction Winter 2010–11: how bad was it? 1. Winter 2010–11 was the UK’s third cold winter in succession. The UK mean temperature for the winter as a whole (ie December, January and February) was 2.4˚C, warmer than last year’s 1.6˚C but the second coldest since 1985–861 and 1.3˚C below the seasonal average.2 December was particularly cold. The average temperature in the UK was over 5˚C lower than normal, making it the coldest December since at least 1910.3 Temperatures below -10˚C were recorded in a number of places throughout the month. 2. Although much drier than average,4 December was also snowy. There were nine “snow events”, beginning in late November,5 and the snowfall was the most widespread of any winter for 30 years.6 There were very large accumulations of snow in parts of Scotland and northern England.7 January and February were more benign, with February 2011 being notably mild.8 3. The worst periods of snowfall, from 30 November to 3 December and from 16 to 22 December, and the intensely cold weather caused extensive disruption to the UK’s transport networks. Most significant was the closure of Heathrow Airport from 18 to 20 December after 7cm of snow fell in one hour on 18 December.9 Several other airports also closed for a time, including Gatwick Airport for 46 hours between 1 and 3 December.10 Rail services south of the Thames, where electricity is conveyed to trains using a third rail, were badly affected as were some inter-city services.11 Infrastructure and operational failures in France caused disruption to Eurostar from 19 to 24 December.12 Although the major road network in England was mostly kept running,13 the AA submitted evidence of “massive congestion and disruption”.14 Local roads in many areas were severely disrupted.15 1 Met Office, http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/2011/winter.html. 2 Ibid. 3 Ev w10, summary and Ev w10, annex B. 4 Met Office, see footnote 1. 5 Ev w10, summary and paragraph 2. 6 Ev 53, paragraph 1. 7 Ev w12-13, Annex A. 8 Met Office, see footnote 1. 9 Report of the Heathrow Winter Resilience Enquiry, 24 March 2011 (hereafter Begg Report) paragraph 52 and see Ev 92, section 3.2. 10 Ev 78, paragraph 3.2. 11 Ev 72.