In Pictures: The Secret Bits Of Tower Bridge
In Pictures: Kinetica Art Fair
St Pancras...The LEGO Version
The London Dossier: A Rough Guide To London, Circa 1967
Diane Abbott Mulls Mayoral Bid
At 08.30 this morning TfL issued a winter weather travel advisory email probably way too late for any commuter presumably already standing in snow and swearing at bus stops or getting turned away from suspended tube services. Here's the latest: all buses were suspended last night and remained so at 08.30. Tube, DLR and London Overground are running but with disruption and many tube suspensions - check out the live travel news if you dare. Seems only the Victoria line is operating a "good service" right now. Do please use the comments to tell us about your travel travails this morning or to ooh and aah about how pretty your garden looks this morning. (Image / windscreen fly)
No Transport For London
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebookComments (27) [rss]
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
Tips
Contribute
Latest Tip:
be safe in london - stay in/never go out - work from home and order your food etc via the internet.
[more]
At the risk of sounding a bit Daily Mail, this country is absolutely ridiculous sometimes. It's *meant* to snow in winter, and they had *loads* of notice that it was going to, but they still act as if it's an apocalyptic event and shut down the entire transport system (more or less). So annoyingly predictable.
To be fair, it does seem to be heavier than snowfall we've had even just earlier this year... in Buckinghamshire it appears to be one of the most substantial snowfalls in the last number of years judging by how deep it is out in my back garden.
I'm just glad I made my trip to London on saturday.
Maybe, yes. It certainly is heaver than I've seen for several years.
But that's not the point. We used to get snow like this all the time in the 70s, according to my foggy childhood memories that can't possibly be wrong. Fundamentally snow is part of the climate of a British winter, and they had loads of notice. What sort of idiots construct a system that can be completely disabled by normal-ish winter weather?
Ah the joys of working from home (although I'd love to go out to throw some snow around).
From TFL's website:
"ALL LONDON BUSES HAVE BEEN WITHDRAWN FROM SERVICE DUE TO ADVERSE WEATHER AND DANGEROUS ROAD CONDITIONS."
Is it really, honestly that startlingly adverse and that blatantly dangerous today that absolutely nothing, not even one or two major services on main roads, could run? I can understand the services being severely affected, but I'm puzzled that everything has to stop.
To be fair to TfL - some of the roads on which the buses run have barely been gritted and as a result are very very icy. Last night (maybe 11:30 or so) on Tulse Hill I saw a bus pulling up to a bus stop, and the car behind, which was (cleverly enough) tailgating the bus very nearly went into the back of it, instead choosing the equally hairy option of mounting the kerb.
The bus drivers for their part were doing pretty well at getting around in these conditions - plenty of other drivers, however, clearly didn't have the foggiest.
Still, it was quite frustrating walking past Stockwell Garage this morning to see all of the drivers standing around having snowball fights.
Just my luck that I happen to commute on the only tube line which is entirely underground.
Sorry for the pedantry, but there are actually 2 lines that are entirely underground. However, one of them was still suspended this morning!
We all know that the W&C isn't a proper tube line ;)
Point humbly taken though...
Some photos from Canary Wharf.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phonophoto/sets/72157613261598854/
Seems the authorities are reporting widespread minor accidents. I guess if they really are occurring all over the place the public transport managers may feel they have no alternative but to stop everything for a while.
Well, in defence of TFL, judging from what I see of how some people drive and how they are skidding across the street in even the smallest inclines I wouldn't want to be driving a bus in traffic today either.
Not a single vehicle on the road is prepared for this. Driving along main roads is probably fine, but on smaller streets it is nightmare.
London Overground was barely functional, with about an hour between trains when i turned up at 9am
easier just to walk a few miles!
though it now seems to be better.
Fair enough, Manne. As I say, I can understand a severe disruption. I was just raising my eyebrows that not even any major, main-road-only services were being attempted.
Agree, that is a bit odd (and more than a little bit annoying ;) ). Sitting here looking out the window fascinated that it still keeps coming down. Reminds me of when I was a kid. :)
isn't this the worst weather we've faced in 20 years?
with planes falling off of runways, it's not like we can pretend it's just "a bit of snow"...
I certainly wouldn't intend that, Craig. I was just expressing surprise that no buses whatsoever could be run, not even on well-treated major roads. I guess there comes a point beyond which it's not worthwhile running those, even if you technically might be able to.
I wasn't commenting on your comment, Duncan! Just to the whole "oh, why can't we cope with a bit of snow, aren't we crap" attitude.
Fair enough, Craig! No offence taken, I hope.
Sounds from what Lindsey is reporting and from reports elsewhere that TfL and local councils might be privately at loggerheads over the road safety issue.
Craig - I'm going to stick to my guns on this! I will accept that London hasn't seen snow like this for several years, but I refuse to accept that this is the worst weather for 20 years! I know that the media luuurves hysteria these days (how many times in the last 4 months have they reported that "for the first time, the recession is now official"?), but the snow that we had in the earlier part of this decade didn't look too dissimilar to this from my perspective.
More significantly, I spent a couple of pre-Christmas weeks in a town on the west coast of Denmark in the past. Every night it snowed like this, and every morning by 7:30am all the roads had been cleared and people were just going about their business normally. Planes were not cancelled. Offices were normally staffed. And so on. And this wasn't even in a major city!
Given that the majority of bus drivers have Lewis Hamilton's cornering style in mind when they get behind the wheel, it can only be a good thing that they've been given the day off.
10.30 update from TfL said (re buses):
"
Due to treacherous road conditions overnight throughout the London area, TfL suspended all bus services in London last night on the grounds of safety.
The vast majority of services currently remain suspended at this time. Services will only resume when road conditions allow and it is safe to do so.
The vast majority of London’s bus services operate along local authority maintained roads which have been particularly affected by the heavy snowfall.
Local authorities are responsible for 95% of the roads network in London and the unsafe condition of the roads network last night was one of the major factors in TfL’s decision to withdraw bus services throughout London on the grounds of safety.
We’re working with the local boroughs to ensure that they can do all they can to clear the roads around bus garages, so we can run services again.
A limited bus service has resumed on a small number of bus routes including routes 16, 36, and 73 in central London. We are endeavouring to increase the number of buses operating in central London throughout the day."
Good old 73.
"The vast majority of services currently remain suspended at this time."
You wait for one adverb of time, and then three come along at once.
For a nicer overall summary of the situation....
www.transportchaos.org
"Current TRANSPORT CHAOS threat level: PANDEMONIUM(153) "
The threat level is updated based off the published service status on the various transport websites. Both mocking our transport services, and providing real information at the same time :-)
Went sledding on Primrose Hill with everyone else. Nothing turns us into a Victorian pastiche like a snowfall. A handful of over-equipped Primrose Hill parents brought out their kids' purpose built sleds, either high tech moulded plastic or nostalgic toboggans; the rest of us ragamuffins used whatever we could think to grab on our way out. Plastic sheets, wall calendars, inflatable chairs-- someone had nicked a Turn Left sign off some poor street. My recycling bin lid was not a star performer.
Spectacular collisions all around, of the sort we would never risk under ordinary conditions.
TfL UPDATE 13h
We are endeavouring to increase the number of buses operating throughout the day. There are currently some buses running on routes 21, 36, 58, 60, 79, 83, 92, 94, 115, 126, 136, 160, 162, 171, 208, 212, 233, 256, 286, 308, 370, 427, 428, 488, 492, 607 and RV1.
I don't understand everybody's complaints. Are people so addicted to work? It's great, a day off. We need more days off. Chill!
I drove on Sunday night and it was hazardous. Very sensible in my opinion to stop all buses.