In message
,
Mizter T writes

On 2 Feb, 09:34, Neil Williams wrote:

On 2 Feb, 09:22, "Batman55" wrote:

According to Howard Collins, COO of London Transport, buses were taken off
last night on the advice of the Met. Police (interview on LBC news)

I don't know what conditions were like last night, so this may or may
not be justified. *It isn't justified that there is no service in
central London this morning.


Things were starting to get messy last night. Lots of sirens
presumably because of lots of smashes on the roads - I saw one.
Conditions in central London should not be taken as being indicative
of those elsewhere.

Travel West Midlands (not normally an organisation capable of giving
advice to London) are running this morning, at least on the main roads
and certainly with delays. Of course, I'm up here today and not in
London so can't fully compare conditions. However, there's more snow
here than we've had for a long time.

A blanket removal of buses seems unjustified to my (largely untrained)
mind. London needs to be able to get around.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

In message
,
Neil Williams writes
On 2 Feb, 09:41, Mizter T wrote:

Things were starting to get messy last night. Lots of sirens
presumably because of lots of smashes on the roads - I saw one.
Conditions in central London should not be taken as being indicative
of those elsewhere.

So you operate what *is* safe with some terminating short. One
assumes that not every bus garage was unable to get anything out and
into central London - and the Red Arrows operate from a garage in
Central London (don't they?) so they at least should be out.

One fact *might* be staff getting to the garage, of course.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

On 2 Feb, 10:43, Ian Jelf wrote:

One fact *might* be staff getting to the garage, of course.

To some extent, this is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy...

Neil

On 2 Feb, 10:25, "J. Chisholm" wrote:

Perhaps if such weather is expected it is better to make it difficult to
get to work in the first place

This is certainly true, but remember that not everyone works 9-5, and
there being no buses this morning could well be making it difficult
for some overnight shift workers to get *home*.

Neil

On Feb 2, 10:00 am, Adrian wrote:
"Batman55" gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying:

According to Howard Collins, COO of London Transport, buses were taken
off last night on the advice of the Met. Police (interview on LBC news)

A very sensible decision.

How many buses in London have winter tyres fitted?

I saw an M&S truck this morning on normal tyres doing ok. Why are
buses different? Mind you , most truck drivers are properly trained,
most bus drivers seem to have had a half day course after graduating
from White Van Man College.

B2003

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On 2 Feb, 10:25, "J. Chisholm" wrote:

Perhaps if such weather is expected it is better to make it difficult to
get to work in the first place

This is certainly true, but remember that not everyone works 9-5, and
there being no buses this morning could well be making it difficult
for some overnight shift workers to get *home*.

Neil

There is also a potential problem if only some buses are running, and no
tubes and limited main line rail, that "crowd control" would become a
problem. And anyway, another 4-8" snow forecast for this afternoon!

MaxB

In article , (J.
Chisholm) wrote:

Neil Williams wrote:
On Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:38:14 +0000, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:

I can't remember this happening in the 70s and 80s when we had the
same levels of snowfall, so I wonder what has changed...

It didn't happen when Milton Keynes Council made the gritting errors a
few years ago which resulted in the entire grid system becoming an ice
rink. The timetable was given up and the buses that were out were
sliding all over the place, but a service was maintained as far as
humanly possible, and even restarted the next day, given that the
drivers themselves also had to get to/from home.

I wonder if this is in part because the weather is EXPECTED to get
worse. Last time it snowed in the afternoon and transport was
distrupted (by idiots in cars and HGVs) many people spent many hours
trying to get home and others slept in their offices.
Perhaps if such weather is expected it is better to make it
difficult to get to work in the first place

Sounds right. I decided not to attempt to get in from Cambridge to work in
Westminster this morning after discovering that almost no-one had got in
anyway.

I was expecting to cycle from King's Cross when FCC was running an almost
normal GN service. By 9:15 they had reduced that to two slows an hour so I
decided there were better ways to meet work objectives.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Paul Weaver wrote:

BBC News have just been interviewing a BBC employee who's walking home
from the West End. There are loads of people stranded in Central London
and having to walk home. He was 3 miles into a 5 mile walk.

BBC employees get a free taxi home if they finish work after 22:45 and
there's no public transport

Yep, (as do many companies) but only if they're on shift! I suspect this
chap wasn't working

In article ,
(Ian Jelf) wrote:

In message
,
Mizter T writes

On 2 Feb, 09:34, Neil Williams wrote:

On 2 Feb, 09:22, "Batman55" wrote:

According to Howard Collins, COO of London Transport, buses were
taken off last night on the advice of the Met. Police (interview
on LBC news)

I don't know what conditions were like last night, so this may or may
not be justified. *It isn't justified that there is no service in
central London this morning.

Things were starting to get messy last night. Lots of sirens
presumably because of lots of smashes on the roads - I saw one.
Conditions in central London should not be taken as being indicative
of those elsewhere.

Travel West Midlands (not normally an organisation capable of
giving advice to London) are running this morning, at least on the
main roads and certainly with delays. Of course, I'm up here
today and not in London so can't fully compare conditions.
However, there's more snow here than we've had for a long time.

A blanket removal of buses seems unjustified to my (largely
untrained) mind. London needs to be able to get around.

I think you'll find that there's rather more snow in London and the South
East than in Brum. In particular, the third rail network seems to be in
big trouble.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 2 Feb, 11:06, "Batman55" wrote:

There is also a potential problem if only some buses are running, and no
tubes and limited main line rail, that "crowd control" would become a
problem.

That it might, but there are only so many people who can physically
fit on a bus. But there aren't many travelling anyway - London is as
quiet as 8am on a Sunday.

And anyway, another 4-8" snow forecast for this afternoon!

Shouldn't be a problem if the gritters stay out.

Neil