TomTom tracks 32-mile snow traffic jam

 

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By Barry Collins (at home in Sussex)

Posted on 2 Feb 2009 at 10:38

Sat nav maker TomTom claim its HD Traffic system has recorded a 32-mile traffic jam on the M25, as snow brings the south of England to a standstill.

The HD Traffic system, which plots the speed of traffic using live cell data from Vodafone mobile handsets, reported there was more than 1,000 miles of traffic on Britain's roads at just before 8:30am this morning.

The longest queue was formed on the M25, between junction 19 at Watford and junction 8 at Reigate, with the traffic stretching back 32 miles at 7:30am.

Elsewhere, there were hour-and-a-half delays on the M27, between junction 11 at Fareham and the M3 interchange.

Other online services support the TomTom data. The traffic data on Google Maps shows the southern section of the M25 at a near standstill, with the A3 also beginning to bear the brunt of the M25 tailbacks.

Train reaction

On the trains, the National Rail Enquiries website appears to be working about as well as the trains themselves, with the website frequently failing to load under the sheer weight of demand.

The websites of the rail operators are faring little better. Southern has stripped its site to a sparse, single page with the latest service updates, after heavy demand knocked it completely offline earlier this morning.

South West Trains has done likewise, claiming its site is "temporarily unavailable due to heavy site traffic, leading to technical difficulties."