Tuesday morning commuter nightmare

Travel update and school closures

South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive said all First bus services in Sheffield were suspended until further notice and Stagecoach services in Barnsley had all been stopped temporarily until roads could be treated.

A spokesman said a range of other bus services in the county had also been suspended but Sheffield's Supertram system was still running.

There were reports of widespread road problems, with the centre of Rotherham said to be "gridlocked".

In Leeds, refuse collection services across the city were suspended because of the bad weather.

A spokesman for the council said: "Refuse crews reported for work as usual this morning and have made attempts to carry out their work but have had to turn back for safety reasons.

"Instead, street cleaning and refuse collection staff will be switched on to gritting and snow-clearing duties, supporting the work of their colleagues in the highways team."

Ten train services between London and Leeds on the East Coast Main Line were cancelled and Leeds Bradford International Airport was also experiencing delays to flights.

On the roads, the M62 was heavily congested with long tail-backs on the approaches to Leeds. Meanwhile, on the M1 near Sheffield heavy snow reduced the motorway to two lanes creating long queues.

At Manchester Airport, numerous incoming flights had to be cancelled or diverted and there were a number of cancellations and delays to departing services as well.

It had been hoped that Manchester might open at 9am, but later it was announced the the airport would remain closed until at least midday.

A spokesman said: "A significant amount of snow has fallen overnight and continues to fall at the airport and across Greater Manchester.

"The forecasts show that the situation is unlikely to clear before 12 noon so operations will remain suspended until then. We have taken this decision as we want to ensure that safety is maintained on the airfield for our airlines and passengers.

"A further decision about snow clearance on the airfield will be taken at that time, taking into account the weather forecasts for the rest of the day.

"We encourage all passengers flying today to check with their airlines for the latest up-to-date information on their flight. Further updates will follow throughout the day."

There were also delays at Aberdeen and Glasgow Airports.

In addition to the London-Leeds cancellations, East Coast Main Line rail travellers suffered delays, with only a very limited service operating between Edinburgh and Glasgow Central and buses replacing trains between Edinburgh and Motherwell.

Passengers travelling between London and Glasgow Central on East Coast services were advised to take Virgin Trains' West Coast services instead.

Signalling problems caused by bad weather conditions at Carstairs near Lanark in southern Scotland led to delays to services run by Virgin and by First TransPennine Express.

There were also delays for Northern Rail passengers travelling between Liverpool and Manchester and between Ellesmere Port and Warrington Bank Quay.

In addition to the closure of a section of the A66, the A628 in South Yorkshire was closed. Among major routes affected by accidents and lane closures were the M6 in Merseyside, the M6 in Cheshire, the M1 in West Yorkshire and the M20 in Kent.

In the Highlands, roads were closed due to snow, including the A939 Grantown on Spey to Cockbridge road, while in Grampian the B974 Banchory to Fettercairn road and the A939 Strathdon to Ballater were among the routes shut.

Eight flights were cancelled at Gatwick Airport in West Sussex and services were delayed at Leeds Bradford Airport.

To add to the difficulties for rail travellers in eastern England, an overhead wire problem between Peterborough and Hitchin led to delays of up to 50 minutes for passengers travelling on East Coast, First Capital Connect and First Hull Trains' services.

Further north, an obstruction on the line near Howden in East Yorkshire led to disruption to services between Doncaster and Hull.