London Crawling: Snow Shuts Down British Capital

It was hardly a blizzard, but it still shut down the city that beat the Blitz.

Commuters walk over Westminster Bridge, in London, Monday, Feb. 2, 2009. Heavy snowfall in much of Britain caused widespread travel problems throughout the country Monday morning, causing hundreds of flight cancellations and rush hour chaos in London

(Joel Ryan/AP)
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The biggest snowfall to hit London in 18 years idled the city's trademark red buses and Underground trains Monday, stranded thousands of airline passengers, and raised the vexing question of why a predicted winter storm caught authorities so unprepared.

Transit officials had nearly a week to get ready, but they failed to keep things running normally in the capital, which was buried under more than four inches of snow overnight and another four inches in the afternoon.

Londoners who needed to get somewhere often found they couldn't — unless they were willing to walk for miles.

"There's no point in going to work today," said office worker Caroline Samuel, 36, after waiting for an Underground train that never arrived. "I'm going home."

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All five of the capital's airports briefly shut down — with nearly 800 flights canceled throughout the day and thousands of passengers stranded. An international flight skidded off a taxiway at Heathrow, causing no injuries.

The city's extensive bus network was completely closed for most of the day and many trains simply didn't run.

Colossal traffic jams clogged roads because of fender benders and more serious accidents.

London's Ambulance Service's operations director Richard Webber said the bad weather had put the department under severe pressure, adding that it will respond only to calls from people with life-threatening injuries or illnesses.

Some people strapped on cross-country skis to get around; others spent the day sledding with their kids.

Problems extended to France and Ireland as well, with airports in both countries reporting numerous delays and cancellations and motorists facing icy hazards.

Mayor Boris Johnson conceded that London lacked the plows and other equipment — mostly because buying it is a gamble with big snowfalls so rare here.

The usually jokey, upbeat mayor said "the volume of snow was so huge" that the city's efforts to keep up were doomed and that skidding buses could become "a lethal weapon."