Drivers trapped all night on Valencia and Alicante roads and rail traffic disrupted due to snow

CHAOS continues in the east of Spain due to snow falling in places it is rarely seen – main highways in the province of Valencia are ground to a halt and rail traffic is disrupted in Alicante and Albacete.

Drivers were trapped all day and night on the A-3 Valencia-Madrid motorway and are believed to still be stuck, whilst the Armed Forces emergency response unit has been distributing blankets and food.

Pylons falling in the gale-force winds yesterday and last night, and overturned lorries, are hindering access to snow-ploughs to clear the A-3.

The worst part is near the Requena exit, close to the western limit of the Comunidad Valenciana, with gridlocks of up to six and 10 kilometres in two places.

Electricity board Iberdrola has sent out helicopters to oversee repairs on the fallen pylons in the Utiel-Requena area.

In the province of Alicante, directly south of that of Valencia, at least 13 roads have been shut, including the A-31 in Villena westbound.

Yesterday night, up to 1,200 cars were trapped on roads across the country, most of them in the province of Alicante, in particular inland areas such as Alcoy, Sax and Tibi.

A total of 730 were ground to a halt on the A-31 and another 50 on the CV-80 between Sax and Castalla.

Road closures were announced all day yesterday on the N-330 between Almansa (Albacete) and Requena (Valencia); on the A-31 in Almansa and between Elda and Petrer (Alicante), later extending to Novelda; and the A-7 motorway between Albaida (Valencia) and the Tibi and San Vicente del Raspeig area.

Traffic authorities asked drivers not to go out anywhere in the areas of Villena and Alcoy (Alicante) and Ontinyent (Valencia).

The A-23 Valencia-Zaragoza motorway has been shut in parts of the province of Castellón, whilst in the region of Murcia, south of the Comunidad Valenciana, six main highways have ground to a halt with drivers stuck in the snow.

Southern Spain is affected in some areas, with motorways and national trunk roads shut in the provinces of Granada, Almería, Cádiz and Sevilla.

Rail traffic has also been disrupted, with the high-speed AVE line between Madrid and Alicante being diverted.

Passengers are currently required to change trains at Cuenca or Albacete on S-730 diesel-powered lines, whilst the Chinchilla-Moixent/Caudete line is completely grounded.

A total of 13 trains in the east were affected yesterday, including long-distance and medium-distance, covering journeys through the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Albacete.

The Valencia-Xàtiva and Valencia-Alcoy trains are currently out of action, as is the C-3 suburban main line to Buñol and Utiel.

Red alerts remain in place for inland parts of Valencia and Castellón provinces, dropping to orange for Almería, Albacete, Cuenca, Almería and Teruel.

The southern Valencia province and northern Alicante province coasts ditched the white stuff yesterday – where, for the first time in 34 years, the beaches of Dénia and Jávea were coated with nearly four inches of snow – and instead suffered torrential rain, thunder and lightning, and gale-force winds.

Temperatures have not risen and are dropping into minus figures at night even on the Mediterranean and south coasts.

The cold snap is expected to last until at least the other side of the weekend.