UK Flights Disrupted By Iceland!

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Another update, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Most restrictions on UK^▸ (United Kingdom) airspace will stay in place until 1300 BST on Friday because of ash from a volcano in Iceland, air traffic controllers say.
But some flights may be allowed after 0100 BST from Northern Ireland and several airports in Scotland.
The volcanic eruption has caused flight cancellations across Europe amid fears the ash could cause engine failures.
Air traffic control service (Nats) said its next review would be at 0230 BST but the situation was "not improving".

[JayMac]

The World Service had an interview with Eric Moody, captain of a BA^» (British Airways - about) 747 that flew through a cloud of volcanic ash in Indonesia in 1982, temporarily shutting down all four engines (and in fact damaging them so badly that once the plane landed safely they were scrapped). Coincidentally, we ended up discussing exactly the same incident a few days ago here.

I'm kinda spooked by my prescience! There I was bringing up the topic of British Airways Flight 9 on another thread (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6560.15) a few days ago and lo and behold a similar situation pops up and grounds all UK^▸ (United Kingdom) flights. At least airlines and air traffic control have learnt from experience!

The main reason for grounding flights is that volcanic ash is dry and doesn't show up on the weather radar used by ATC^▸ (Automatic Train Control). Radar only gets a return 'bounce' from wet clouds.

[JayMac]

If anyone wants to know just how bad things can get when an aeroplane flies into a volcanic ash cloud then may I suggest you watch this video dramatisation of the BA^» (British Airways - about) Flight 009 incident:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-5620835202130688048&ei=IbbHS7yQM8rC-QaA9NGOCw&q=ba+flight+009&hl=en&view=3#

[inspector_blakey]

It's getting worse! From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page).

And the Grauniad is threatening an eruption that could last days or even weeks.

I may be getting a little paranoid here, but I'm starting to worry that even if BA^» (British Airways - about) cabin crew don't scupper my trip in 5 May, this bleedin' volcano may yet b*gg*r things up...

[Worcester_Passenger]

Travelled homewards from Preston to Birmingham on Thursday evening on Virgin's 18:17 departure, a 5-car Voyager that had started in Glasgow. I got the last seat in First Class. Rest of train heaving as well.

A wonderful opportunity for Virgin to grab back some passengers from the airlines. But alas, you're not going to do that with a coach with the ventiliation out of action and an utterly uninterested crew.

[Mookiemoo]

It's getting worse! From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page).

And the Grauniad is threatening an eruption that could last days or even weeks.

I may be getting a little paranoid here, but I'm starting to worry that even if BA^» (British Airways - about) cabin crew don't scupper my trip in 5 May, this bleedin' volcano may yet b*gg*r things up...

same here since I fly on 6th - except I need to get away badly enough I'll ditch virgin if need be and get a, gulp, cattle class from schipol or Paris or somewhew

[broadgage]

At present the ash cloud is confined to the upper atmosphere and cant therefore affect trains or other engines at ground level.
If however the ash descends to ground level, then engines should be protected by the air filters with which virtualy all engines are equiped.
Such filters might however need more frequent replacement if substantial ash is present at low level, Hope that TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) keep good stocks of spares.

[Tim]

At present the ash cloud is confined to the upper atmosphere and cant therefore affect trains or other engines at ground level.
If however the ash descends to ground level, then engines should be protected by the air filters with which virtualy all engines are equiped.
Such filters might however need more frequent replacement if substantial ash is present at low level, Hope that TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) keep good stocks of spares.

Train and car engines are designed to work in dusty atmospheres at the best of times, so a little bit of extra dust shouldn't make a difference. 

Plus if ash gets into a piston engine, it ought not to melt because the operating temperatures are lower than jet engines, I it will just lead to increased wear rather then an internal coating of molten glass.  . 

[Tim]

But seriously, first the Cod Wars, then the Icelandic banks collapse with lots of British money and now they've shut down our airspace... Coincidence?

Surely it was a simple misunderstanding.  Gordon asked Iceland for Cash, and they misheard

[IndustryInsider]

I was interested to see what kind of additional service Eurostar might be offering as a result of the flight disruption.  Having visited the website all I could find was a message saying they were doing all they could to run extra trains and accommodate extra passengers.  Not exactly very useful information, and a bit more trawling resulted in me finding that Christian Wolmer had already noticed:

http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/2010/04/railway-cannot-no-longer-respond-to-crisis/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feed%2Fchristianwolmar+%28Christian+Wolmar%29

Looks like a great opportunity to restore their damaged reputation has been squandered!

[basset44]

Hi All,

Posted this in the lighter side but are not trying to trivialize the serious situation that is affecting people at the moment but because there is no uniformity in the network anymore I suppose the Heathrow Express and Gatwick Express trains are now running nearly empty but cannot be used on other routes to help the movement of people.

Well done to East Coast and Virgin for putting on a couple of trains but surely if the situation continues a lot more needs to be done

Basset

[inspector_blakey]

Firstly, after recent changes Gatwick Express is now part of the Southern franchise and many of their trains run through Gatwick and to the south coast, so they will probably still be fairly well used.

Heathrow and Stansted express are probably operating more or less empty at the moment, but what do you mean about "help[ing] the movement of people"...? What people, going where? Are you seriously suggesting running Heathrow and Stansted express units to Scotland to replace domestic air travel? Even when BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) was "uniform" (which it wasn't) these trains would never have been mobilized in an attempt to replace flights. The GEx trains are third-rail so moving them outside the southern region is a non-starter. Here are the other problems:

1. All essentially outer suburban commuter stock. No fun being stuck on one of them for 4-6 hours*.
2. Drivers with relevant route knowledge would not have known the traction and vice versa.
3. Somehow you have to get all these units from where they normally operate onto a different route for which they may not have gauge clearance

and here's the real killer...
4. The situation could resolve itself fairly quickly and with very little notice. Not sure people trying to travel to LHR, LGW and STN once flights start up again would be too impressed to find that all of the rolling stock for the rail connections was half way to Scotland.

Sorry bassett44, but this is nothing to do with the "non-uniformity" of rail privatization, I really don't think you've thought this one through!

It's very easy to say "a lot more needs to be done" or "somebody should do something about this", but that's of no use to anyone unless there is a realistic and practical way of doing something. Believe it or not, the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s rail network is not set up with sufficient slack to leap into action at the drop of a hat if some once-in-a-lifetime event like a volcano paralysing domestic air travel happens, and in my opinion that's quite right!

_{*pipe down on the Cotswold line please...}

[Chris from Nailsea]

In view of the reasons for the suggestion, and their specific relevance to the Iceland topic, I've moved these posts here, purely for continuity.

Thanks for using 'the lighter side' for your post, basset44, but your comment perhaps reflected a general view that 'more needs to be done', and I think it's helpful for the discussion to be included on this topic?

C. 

[John R]

It looks like I've got an extra 5 days in Florida, and then a rather circuitous route back via Tampa and Chicago.   

[inspector_blakey]

Well, 5 more days in FL can't be too bad. Sorry to hear about that journey back though. Good luck navigating ORD. Bleaurgh.