Finally in the office after hours of putting up with cancelled and delayed trains. Why? Because it snowed, not a lot, just a light flurry and the whole fucking transport system grinds to a halt. :mad:
What really pisses me off is that we pay first world prices and get less than third world service.
How do countries where it really snows (Canada, Sweden et al) manage to keep going when we, who live in a fairly temperate country cannot?
Maybe there is a doper out there who works in the UK rail industry who can enlighten me.
If you’re going to have snow on the ground for three months a year, it makes sense to invest in a huge amount of equipment and technololgy to deal with it. If you’re going to have three days of snow per year, the investment needs to be proportionate.
(BTW, what route do you travel? I can find nothing snow-related on National Rail’s lists of current or cleared problems)
The problem was on the Leicester to Birmingham line. Apparently the train was in the station but for reasons they did not give just sat there. No driver? It’s happened before.
Countries with lots of snow also tend to be significantly colder, so the type of snow they get is ‘icier’ and ‘fluffier’. While most in the UK is ‘slushier’ and ‘clumpier’. (Why don’t we have proper words in the English language to describe all this???) This is harder to clear.
Yes, it’s the “wrong type of snow” excuse.
Other countries also have much more predictable weather that changes less often. They know when it’ll snow and how long it’ll be around. Makes planning and coping much easier.
Rail privatisation: a method of spending more Government money for a worse service for idealogical reasons.
I used to travel a lot from London to Peterborough, then change onto a branch line. If the main line train was delayed for a few minutes, British Rail would hold the connecting service. Since privatisation, the two rail companies don’t talk (and indeed are fined for ‘late’ departures). So you always miss the connection.
Naturally, fracturing the rail network and not knowing which franchise will be running trains in a few years ‘guarantees’ long-term investment and planning. :rolleyes:
Could well have been. No announcements isn’t acceptable, though. Some TOCs are better than others about this: I’ll never forget being on a late departure from Norwich, and the guard announcing (in a thick Norfolk accent) " 'pologies for the late departure f’om Norwich, due to the driver 'avin 'is car wheelclamped." Nobody could argue with that one.
Yeah, they always seem to announce the reason behind delays these days. I was surprised by how often the reason was someone trying to commit suicide in front of the train/tube.
Does anyone know why the gritters only come out after it’s started to snow? Last week it had been trying to snow all day in Edinburgh, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that come night fall and the drop in temperature, it was going to snow.
Surely the gritters should have been out all day preparing for the snow? Why wait till there’s an inch and a half of snow down before sending them out?
Wet, slushy snow could well interfere with the signalling, by closing the circuit between the rails and thereby creating “phantom” trains that show up on the signallers’ screens. Then signals start flipping to “danger”, and the real trains ain’t going anywhere.
Here in Sydney we have another tinpot rail system help together with chewing gum and fencing wire. A cloud passes in front of the sun, or a butterfly lands on the track and the whole network grinds to a halt. Rain slows it down, but usually it’s heat that does it.
The road wasn’t dry. It had been snowing on and off all day, with periods of rain inbetween. It was obvious to anyone that as soon as the temperature dropped, we’d have a heavy downfall of snow.
If there’d been intermittent snow and rain, then it’s likely that there’d be no need for grit at all - slush doesn’t need gritting. And in any case, run-off water washes away grit and salt. If heavy snow was on the way, that’s the time the gritters are efficient.
What’s grit? Rock salt? That’s what they use here. Where it is also snowing.
I once got stuck for 45 minutes between Birmingham and London for no apparent reason. Based on some conversations I had while sitting in the middle of nowhere, it wasn’t a very uncommon occurance.
3 hours to get to work yesterday from SW London to Reading. 3 FUCKING HOURS! And it’s snowing more today than yesterday!
And why? Because there were accidents at Junctions 7,8, and 9! How could someone be that stupid?
“Oh, I see lights and slow traffic ahead. Must be an accident. I guess I will speed up as I am sure that means road conditions, due to it snowing and being quite cold, will be fine for my M-reg Astra with bald tyres.”
You’d think people would learn after the first 2 accidents that maybe it was slick and time to slow down, but oh, no.
3 hours. Normal journey - 1.5 when traffic is bad. This was unreal…
Yep, its pretty damned standard. For some reason Virgin cannot fathom how to run a train between London and Birmingham without it being either:
a) late
b) hopelessly overcrowded
c) stuck in the middle of fucking nowhere, generally near Milton Keynes
d) some combination of the above.
I do either Birmingham -> London (on a Friday evening) or London -> Birmingham (on a Monday morning) on average once a week. Its a rare occurance when I get in on time. Makes me mad.
Actually, being pedantic, British Rail’s infamous “wrong type of snow” excuse came in February 1991 which was an exceptionally cold spell. The problem was that the snow was too dry and powdery, so it blew into the train motors and clogged them up. Wet slush usually isn’t so bad.
FWIW, my train journey (Hampshire to Waterloo) has not been too bad during the cold spell, although I was delayed on Friday due to a train being “frozen onto the track in a siding”
The roads, however… I don’t know if it is the rise of central heating and a/c in cars that has divorced people’s brains from what the weather is doing, but people WILL NOT drive sensibly when there is snow on the roads.
This morning I missed my train due to being held up by a head-on crash which the ambulances were just arriving at. A car had obviously tried overtaking on an icy road on a blind corner, and had hit a van head on. The small car was approcimately three feet shorter than it should have been, and as I waited for a gap to clear I could see a man in a business suit lying on the mud at the side of the road surrounded by medics, with no signs of movement
A rather sobering start to my day, which put my initial “Oh crap I’m going to be later for work” thoughts into perspective. I have a horrible feeling that chap won’t be turning up for work, late or not, ever again.
I think the problem here is ice on the electrics - either on the third rail pickup, forming an insulating layer, or freezing up the pantograph so it can’t be raised to the wires. Rectifying either of these problems means turning off the power for a section of track, causing all sorts of delays.
I absolutely agree that this seems to be the problem.
