Snow joke as UK transport sites downed

The heavy snow in the UK has left transport websites incapable of coping with the demands of thousands of people looking for the latest travel information.

The National Rail Enquiries website, as well as major train companies' and the Transport For London sites were so overloaded with requests that they have ploughed to a halt.

Although the snow was widely expected, the sheer number of people checking to see if trains, tubes, buses were running (nope) or if Britain's motorways were open proved too much for servers.

Snow joke

Rob Cotton, Chief Executive Officer of website monitoring and load testing expert, NCC Group Plc, comments: "Despite forewarning, a number of travel companies have underestimated the number of travellers logging on.

"It is essential that travel providers load test their websites ahead of periods of expected high volumes of traffic to avoid costly downtime, which can be damaging to an organisation's image and leave travellers in limbo.

"The reliability of transport companies is often questioned by the media, so failing to provide commuters with up to date information on what is likely to be one of the most difficult commuter days of the year, could prove to be damaging."

It was hardly a surprise to those who commute that the trains aren't the only thing that can't cope with adverse weather conditions.

However, the social communities quickly stepped up to bring some information to the masses, with Twitter's #uksnow channel attracting road warnings and train updates (alongside pictures of snowmen).