European travelers are definitely not happy as massive volcanic ash clouds have grounded flights throughout Europe, including most transatlantic flights. The ash substance can essentially cause airlines to crash. According to ABC News, over 1,000 flights have been grounded at London’s Heathrow Airport, and now all the affected passengers are voicing their frustration on Facebook.
Yesterday, hundreds of updates a second were pouring into Facebook and yet again today, updates are filling the Facebook stream. It’s a historic event as it is the largest air travel disruption since September 11, 2001. It’s better to be safe than sorry though as flying on a plane which loses engine power completely is definitely not fun and could end up in a complete disaster.
Stream updates on Facebook were from users either complaining about not being able to fly, from users who were calling this apocalyptic activity as it has followed numerous earthquakes, and of course users simply posting videos of news stories about the event. While it appears as though the volume of updates has slowed slightly, there’s no doubt that users will continue to post updates as the volcanic ash cloud continues to blow across Europe.
Have you been affected by the volcanic eruption?
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I'm trying to understand this, forgive me for not having "on the ground" experience, but we have heard soooo much about the train systems in Europe and how much better it is than the US because you can hop a train from anywhere and get everywhere. Why not take a train to an unaffected area and fly out of there? Or fly into an unaffected area and take a train IN? Are the trains "grounded" too? Didn't hear anything about it over here if that's so.
Comment by Outré Forfull — April 16, 2010 @ 1:27 pm
Im stuck in Singapore and its not as easy as 'hoping on a train' for me to get home. Pretty much the whole of Europe is affected, where exactly would people fly to get the train back home or to their destination? Yes, the train system is good here but if everyone got on the trains surely it would be just as bad. And after a 13 hour flight to say Scotland the last thing I want is another 5/6 hour train back to London to get on another 2 hour train to Birmingham. With baggage.
Comment by Julie — April 17, 2010 @ 8:17 am
Try understanding this, until the railway companies start taking Monopoly money, many of us don’t have the extra funds to pay for multiple train tickets and then extra plane tickets.
Now if you want to wire me the money, I’ll be more than happy to hop on an already over-packed train headed out of here to go sit in another terminal and be told the same thing.
Comment by Matt — April 17, 2010 @ 2:29 pm
The trains don't run empty. Even if they weren't already carrying lots of people, accommodating millions of additional passengers at the drop of a hat would be impossible.
Eurostar runs 58 trains between Britain, France and Belgium. Demand was so high Friday it crashed the server repeatedly. They're getting several times as many people wanting to buy a seat as they have available seats, and that's after adding additional trains to the normal schedule.
Comment by Michael Wilde — April 18, 2010 @ 2:34 pm
Yes. Our train system is much better than others have.
Have a wee look at a map though; If I wan to travel from Edinburgh to Paris it's a short flight. If I go by train I have to go under the North Sea and there is only one tunnel. So I need to cover more miles.
Did you really need an answer? (We hear soooo much about US citizens not understanding the rest of the world.)
When all the oil is used up then surely you can all just walk or cycle!
Comment by Clananderson — April 19, 2010 @ 12:33 am
Trains are packed full these last days. The train system is designed for a certain number of people, the regular travelers. It can't cope with the sudden extra flow of travelers.
People are trying to get on the train, some people even take taxis overnight and pay up to $3000 to get home.
Comment by Sven Masselin — April 19, 2010 @ 2:35 am
try to take out a whole branch of transportation that has been booked in advance for weeks or months and not be stuck with grumpy people.
three things: 1. you'd sometimes have to travel through half the continent to do that, in trains which are not used to these masses of people, that said: trains are crowded, just spent 24 hours in trains and trains stations
2. people are not only going to and from europe but also in between, all the intereuropean air traffic is pretty much down (look at the map!), so people would have to travel basically either to portugal, italy, or greece to get a flight, none of these are the place of the main air traffic hubs in europe
3. many of the people stuck are stuck on islands. no trains.
Comment by G. Neuner — April 19, 2010 @ 3:21 am