It is rather interesting that the biggest problem the passengers camping in Heathrow Airport were having wasn’t the lack of flights, food or featherbeds but the complete absence of reliable information from staff. None of the passengers had any idea whether their flights were cancelled, postponed or boarding. The same thing happened last night to me, standing on an icy platform of a large East London station. I was wondering where all the trains were gone that were promised on the information board, as no cancellations were announced, when a northern, grumpy voice said over the tannoy:

“There will no main line services running until 9pm. Main Line services after 9 pm will be running sporadically and will be severely overcrowded. There is no guarantee that any trains will be running at all, though”.

Helpful, ay?

Fortunately I knew that my particular train was running on a branch line, but all the punters around me just shook their head and didn’t understand any of this. I just hope that they haven’t ended as icicles on a train platform in East London.