MPs have been examining how to avoid a repeat of the severe disruption caused by December’s heavy snow fall The UK should appoint a “snow supremo” to try to avoid another winter of chaos at airports, MPs have recommended.
The Transport Select Committee also said a culture change was needed in the rail industry to ensure passengers were looked after during serious disruption.
It said failure to provide information about services should cost the firms responsible money.
MPs also called for a further £10m in funding to enable the Met Office to provide better long-term forecasts.
The Transport Committee of cross-party MPs has been examining the response to the severe weather of December 2010.
It suggested that the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, should appoint a senior Department for Transport official who would oversee snow plans at Heathrow and other airports.
The committee’s report, which pointed out that the winter was the third in a row with severe weather, said that better weather forecasting could help warn the country to be more prepared.
Mr Hammond said he agreed with the committee that some disruption during extreme weather is inevitable.
“We have already started work to improve our preparedness for the coming winter,” he said.
He said the government had set up a committee to consider scientific and economic advice on severe weather preparations.
Debbie Shuttlewood was stranded on a Brighton train for hours last December before eventually being taken back to London Victoria in the middle of the night.
“Investment clearly needs to be made to our infrastructure to deal with weather extremes.”
“[But] the key issue for me is how short-notice disruption is dealt with, things that can’t be planned for.
“There is only a point in [investing] in weather predictions if it’s actually going to make a difference.
“[In my case] we must have known about the snow a week or so in advance, and really things should have been in place by then.
“Time should just be invested in putting together emergency plans at various transport hubs to deal with situations like this.
“Major airports and stations should have accommodation reserved for when people are stranded, and food in place.
“Communication networks need to be set up, and individuals in stations and airports need to be empowered to make decisions.”
His department was also planning a revamp of the regulatory framework for airports, and was looking at ways to keep motorists informed of any problems on their network.
The committee said the current seasonal predictions from the Met Office “do not provide a firm basis on which decision-makers can act with confidence”.
It also said that Mr Hammond had put the £10m price tag on the additional computing power needed by the Met Office to provide more accurate 10-year predictions.
The committee’s chairman, Louise Ellman MP, said: “Given the huge cost of winter weather disruption to the economy – some £280m per day in transport disruption alone – the £10m suggested by Mr Hammond would be a small price to pay to improve the Met Office’s long-range forecasting capability.”
In response the Met Office said: “We welcome the committee’s findings and its acknowledgement of the quality of our short-range forecasts provided through November and December of last year.
“Throughout the cold weather, the Met Office provided consistently good advice. Of 13 individual spells of severe weather, the Met Office forecast provided very good advice on 12 of them,” a spokesperson said.
The report singled out Heathrow, which was at a virtual standstill for days when the snow hit.
It said the airport was totally unprepared to recover from any major incident which necessitated its closure.
A BAA spokesman rejected the criticism.
“This is contrary to the findings of the (BAA-commissioned) inquiry by Professor David Begg, which found that BAA had historically ‘demonstrated its ability to respond well to earlier weather events’, and also contrary to the evidence from the airspace closure caused by volcanic ash in 2010.”
Eurostar is one of the many transport services that witnessed major disruption from snow last December The firm has already said it will invest £50m in snow defence equipment, and is putting in place better procedures for any future major disruptions.
On the railways, the committee proposed financial incentives for companies to keep passengers better informed.
It also said the resilience of the third rail network south of the Thames should be improved, and the long-term aim should be to replace the existing network with a more resilient form of electrification.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus said: “Passengers will be pleased to see this report acknowledges many of the information failings that happened during the snow disruption in December.
“Failing to provide information at times of disruption is the number one cause of anger and upset on the part of passengers.”
He added that some train companies had continued to sell tickets for trains they knew were unable to run.
The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) recognised that the industry needed to improve.
“We will examine this report closely and continue to work with the rest of the industry to make sure passengers get the services that they expect and deserve.”
The committee’s other recommendations include:
airport operators should be allowed to reclaim the cost of looking after stranded passengers from airlines that have failed to do sobetter online advice on how individuals and communities can tackle problems arising from severe winter weathera high profile campaign to encourage more motorists to take precautions for driving in winter weather.
Mrs Ellman of the Transport Select Committee said: “Every airport operator must now be pushed to plan properly for bad weather, so that people are not left stranded and without even basic supplies in airport terminals for days on end.”
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