? More heavy snow for Wales, Midlands, and North West
? Heathrow to operate two-thirds of flights
? Eurostar operating a "near to normal" service
Evening summary:
? BA will step up operations in the run-up to Christmas Day. It will boost the number of seats by flying larger longhaul aircraft to European cities where possible and hopes to operate full longhaul departure schedule from Heathrow tomorrow and Friday.
? BAA boss Colin Matthews foregoes his 2010 bonus. For 2009, his salary and bonuses came to �944,000.
? Eurostart operating a near to normal service, but still urged only customers with tickets to show up at terminals.
East Coast main line says it will operate a "near normal" timetable between London King's Cross and Scotland tomorrow and on Christmas Eve.
On both days services are running as follows:
? A broadly hourly service between Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds and London King's Cross
? There will be no services to and from Glasgow, with the exception of the first service - the 0650 Glasgow Central to King's Cross. All other services will start and terminate at Edinburgh.
? Both the 0655 Skipton to London King's Cross and 0728 Harrogate to London King's Cross services will start at Leeds. A number of Leeds to London King's Cross services have also been cancelled.
BA has just announced that it is ramping up operations in the run-up to Christmas Day after five days of severe disruption due to snow and ice. The airline says it aims to operate the vast majority of shorthaul flights to and from Heathrow and is looking to boost the number of seats by flying larger longhaul aircraft to European cities where possible. Today, BA flew 275-seater Boeing 777s to Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Madrid to help clear the backlogs. BA is also hiring extra aircraft and is increasing shorthaul seat numbers at Gatwick and London City to several European and UK destinations, which are also served at Heathrow. On Thursday and Friday the airline is hoping to operate its full longhaul departure schedule from Heathrow. It will also operate a normal schedule at Gatwick and London City airports.
"We typically spend six weeks pulling together the complex Christmas rosters for our 14,000 cabin crew and more than 3,000 pilots," said BA boss Willie Walsh. "Those 17,000 rosters are like a giant global jigsaw puzzle, which has been torn up by the days of disruption at Heathrow and around the world. We now have around a day to rebuild those rosters, so that we get the maximum number of flights into the air ahead of Christmas. This is a huge logistical task but we won't stop working until we fill our aircraft with as many customers as possible."
The West Midlands ambulance service has appealed to owners of 4x4s in Coventry, Warwick, Nuneaton and Rugby to offer their services to help patients receive vital treatment at home.
Due to the current extreme weather conditions, volunteers who own 4x4 vehicles are being asked for their assistance to help drive nurses to patients who require treatment in their homes. These patients may include diabetics and those that needing renal dialysis treatment.
Police in Avon and Somerset are warning people to guard their heating oil after a spate of thefts of oil from domestic tanks.
They suggest fitting CCTV camera, oil cap locks, alarms or covering tanks in a prickly hedge.
It is believed the thefts are linked to an increase in the cost of heating oil and gas. The offences have occurred across South Somerset including Yeovil, Crewkerne, Cudworth, Kingsbury Episcopi and Low Ham.
(That's enough from me for another year. Merry Christmas. Mark Tran is on snow blog duty for the rest of the day.)
There are delays of up to 90 minutes between Darlington and York, the train operator East Coast announced. "These delays are expected to last until further notice," it said.
Neal Kemp is one of those passengers affected. He emailed: "Currently sat in an East Coast train in York on my way from London to Edinburgh. Been sat here for 45 minutes with a possible departure in another 45, but they're not sure."
Winter solstice celebrations at Stonehenge descended into a snowball fight.
Euston station isn't any better.
"It wouldn't be Euston without a panic-run," tweets misctape.
It sounds as if judeeccles was caught in the same rush: "nearly flattened by 100s of stampeding scousers at euston when their delayed train was announced. terrifying."
Jominystu says there is "Calm chaos at Euston."
The departure board doesn't look too good right now.
You can get updates on all the rail service disruptions on the National Rail Inquiries website.
Queues are mounting at King's Cross railway station. In the last hour or so, the atmosphere there is various described in various Twitter updates as "a bit like hell at the moment" ; "mental" and "the apocalypse".n
FT columnist Philip Stephens sticks the boot into BAA - which is owned by Spain's Ferrovial - for being too greedy.
BAA has not abandoned its bad old ways ? extracting as much money as possible from Heathrow to meet Ferrovial's debt service payments. Yes, the airport's terminals are gradually being refurbished; but to a standard, and at a speed, that would shame most big cities.
Meanwhile, the BBC has this piece contrasting investment at Heathrow and Gatwick (once owned by BAA until it was sold to Global Infrastructure Partners) in ice-fighting equipment.
Earlier this year, BAA published an investment programme of �5.1bn for Heathrow over five years, of which �500,000 was invested in snow and ice-fighting technology this year, with another �3m planned for the next four years. By comparison, reports suggest that Gatwick Airport, which is half the size of Heathrow and was sold by BAA last year, spent �1m on snow and ice this year and plans to spend another �7m next year. Heathrow's "snow fleet" is made up of 69 vehicles; Gatwick's is a reported 150.
Things may be returning to normal, but the Association of British Travel Agents warns there will still be some delays and cancellations due to the many aircraft being out of position. BAA has made the same point.
More on that BAA bonus for Colin Matthews.
"I have decided to give up my bonus for the current year," the BAA chief executive confirmed.
"My focus is on keeping people moving and rebuilding confidence in Heathrow."
BAA would not say what Matthews' 2010 bonus would have amounted to. For 2009, his salary and bonuses came to �944,000.
BAA didn't buy enough de-icing fluid to keep Heathrow's runways open this week, according to the Times.
Not true, says BAA. "It is categorically untrue that we have either run out of de-icer, failed to order enough de-icer or accepted de-icer supplies from the government," a spokesman said.
While much of Heathrow airport was closed for the better part of four days, Manchester airport was shut for only 180 minutes.
It boasts that it has managed to remain open this week because of forward-planning and investment in new equipment.
It spent �2m (two Colin Matthews paychecks) on snow clearing equipment.
Manchester Airport's managing director Andrew Harrison, said: "It's a real achievement to keep the airport moving ? all of our staff deserve a big pat on the back. We've incorporated a number of changes in light of the experiences we gained during last winter, including new equipment that enables us to clear snow in a more efficient way, increased contingency staffing levels and improving capacity to store more anti-icing fluid on site, all of which have helped to keep operations running."
BAA chief executive Colin Matthews won't be taking his 2010 bonus, according to Channel 4 News.
The Telegraph reported this morning that Matthews had been paid �1m this year.
What to do when you're starved of snow and travel news? Turn to Boris Johnson.
Speaking at the Westfield Shopping Centre in west London, Johnson promised a "mega investigation" into what went wrong at Heathrow over the last few days.
"I have been going on about this now for two, three, four days and I think honestly people have been wondering why it took so long to get planes going after the last snow flake fell on Heathrow. I really hope BAA is learning some very serious lessons; they have got to be ready next time."
But he denied that the problems at the airport and at Eurostar had been an embarrassment for London.
"I think we've got a great British habit of beating ourselves up but I think if you look at the services in London, the tubes and the buses didn't too badly at all. I think overall the parts of London that Transport for London is responsible for did pretty well, but it's a tough few says."
Eurostar proudly tweets: Check in has now returned to normal. Please arrive one hour before your train is due to depart.
It might be time to stop this live blog.
If you're waiting for a Christmas parcel from the delivery firm City Link, it has posted a depot-by-depot breakdown of weather-related problems on the document sharing site Scribd. It runs to eight pages.
What do you do if flight is disrupted? Our travel desk has some advice plus the latest on the delays at the airports.
It's been a struggle to find news of transport "chaos" today on the roads and railways, and at airports. But what about those "treacherous" pavements?
Living Streets, a charity for pedestrians, is concerned and wants something to be done: Chief executive Tony Armstrong says:
Our pavements are still being neglected while roads take priority. There are willing volunteers out there who are happy to grit pavements in their local areas, but advice seems to be to leave the grit in bins for the purpose of gritting roads, whilst those on foot are neglected.
During bad weather, at a minimum people should be able to walk to and from their local shops and services without fear of slipping on the ice. We want to see local authorities sign a winter contract with their community to work together so no one is isolated or vulnerable because of the weather. This contract should include gritting, co-ordinating volunteer ice wardens to keep communities moving, and re-deploying council staff who are unable to do their usual jobs in the icy weather.
A forecaster on BBC News warned that the latest Met Office data suggested there could be heavy snow showers in south-east England tomorrow and on Christmas eve. There is nothing yet on this on the Met Office website, but stayed tuned.
Its latest forecast for Thursday says:
Many places dry with a better chance of sunshine than today; isolated snow-showers in the east. Cloudy in the far-southeast with a biting northeasterly wind. Very cold everywhere with widespread-frost.
The queues aren't nearly as long today, but Eurostar continues to get in the neck from its passengers on Twitter.
Here's a sample from this morning:
Rebeccanestor: Queue at St Pancras this morning wholly within the station but still v long #eurostar #snow
stefangates: Finally on the Eurostar but loads of empty seats despite queues outside st pancras going round the block. Rubbish organisation.
jackiechamberx: @eurostar U not telling truth. Why queues if only ticketed travel? U abusing trust of yr customers? Ur only way to sort mess is to lie 2 us?
stevewilsonap: Queue inside has fallen apart and it's free for all with everyone clamoring to get through. How they will sort this out is anyone's guess.
Heathrow has published a lists of 882 flights that are due to depart today. This represents about 70% of what was scheduled, a spokesman said.
The departure board for the next hour or so is still showing a lot of cancelled flights, according to Flightstats.
This should be the day that queues of stranded passengers are cleared and normal transport services are resumed.
But more heavy snow is falling across northern Wales, the Midlands and the North West, as shown on the UK snow Twitter map.
Eurostar insists that queues are moving well, and that passengers with tickets only need to turn up an hour before they are due to depart. This is a big improvement on yesterday when the queue was well over half a mile long and the wait was five hours.
BAA is also sounding more confident about clearing the backlog at Heathrow. It is preparing to operate more than two-thirds of flights today.
But BAA faces fresh embarrassment today. The Telegraph reveals that its chief executive Colin Matthews was paid �1m this year - "twice as much as the company spent preparing for the prospect of bad weather this winter".
There are more problems on the rail network today.
?�Trains are running again on the East Coast mainline after a suspension yesterday between Kings' Cross and Peterborough. But there is a reduced service, and several trains have been cancelled on the route.
? A broken-down train is causing delays between London and Northampton and Rugby while a number of services in Wales and Scotland have had be axed.
? There are also delays and cancellations on services run by the Northern Rail company, while First Great Western and First Capital Connect are operating amended timetables.
? National Express East Anglia is running a reduced service on several lines in East Anglia.
? West Coast main line operator Virgin Trains is operating a reduced service on its London to Birmingham and Manchester routes.
? In London, the Docklands Light Railway is suspended between Canning Town and Beckton due to power supply problems.
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