Snow causes chaos across Salford with Schools and transport affected

By Jack Adcock on 30th January 2019 in News

Image from @MattPDickinson

Heavy snowfall over night has caused disruption across Salford and Greater Manchester, with many schools closing and delays on public transport.

13 schools across Salford have been closed as a result of the snow, with staff being unable to get into work being touted as the main reason for the closures.

Travel across Greater Manchester has also been heavily affected, with Metrolink services seeing severe delays all morning, along with buses and trains. The Eccles line was one of the worst services affected, with tickets being accepeted on buses to ease the impact on commuters.

We are currently experiencing severe delays on the Eccles line at this time. Tickets are being accepted on the 33, 50 and 70 bus services.

— Manchester Metrolink (@MCRMetrolink) January 30, 2019

Manchester Airport was also heavily affected by the snow. Many flights scheduled for this morning have either been cancelled or severely delayed. These amazing pictures from Twitter show the extent of the chaos that the snowy weather has caused.

#manchesterairport this morning at 6.00am ? pic.twitter.com/YrRkTH38wE

— Shell (@Shellnewlife) January 30, 2019

Been sat on this plane for nearly 3hrs, @manairport is on shut down coz of the snow.
Very poor updates on the likelihood of reopening. You could make better use of social media instead of the ironic “ready for another day” tweet. You clearly aren’t ready! #manchesterairport pic.twitter.com/OLcxX6iqoK

— Prossy (@Pkakooza) January 30, 2019

The airport has since issued the following statement to travelers.

“Our airfield team has been working through the night to keep the runways clear, which resulted in the day’s operations starting as planned.

“However, as conditions worsened significantly this morning, we took the decision to temporarily close our runways. We continue to work to mitigate the challenging conditions and hope to minimise further impacts.

“However, the safety of our customers and staff is our number one concern and there is likely to be some disruption this morning.”

Traffic on the M60 as a result of heavy snowfall

Motorways and roads were also affected, with delays common across this morning. The M60 proved particularly busy, with a stranded vehicle blocking the junction.

#M62 J19 – J18 westbound to towards #Simister #M60. we have a rolling road block to clear stranded vehicle, we’ll have you moving shortly.

— Highways England (@HighwaysNWEST) January 30, 2019

It hasn’t all been disruption though. Salford Red Devils star Jackson Hastings is usually more familiar with the golden beaches and glaring heat in his home country of Australia. He showed on twitter that he has no problem adjusting to the wintery conditions in Salford, even choosing to go out in swim trunks. A very brave decision.

❄️??‍♂️ @BudgySmuggler pic.twitter.com/VAjqFz14mq

— Jackson Hastings (@JackoHastings) January 30, 2019

A Met Office yellow warning remains in place today for ice, however no more snow is expected to fall between now and the end of the day. There is however a yellow warning for snow scheduled for tomorrow afternoon so we could be expecting more disruption later in the week.

We asked you to send in your pictures of the snow in Salford. Here are a couple of this mornings replies. Keep them coming in throughout the day and we will be posting our favorites to our social media channels.