Breaking news!

David Brown is in TV right now, looking quite worn-out. He says that the
disruption is down to the state of roads around depots - TfL have kept the
red routes clear of snow, but depots are connected by minor roads under
the care of local authorities, and those have been blocked by snow. He
didn't seem to be blaming the councils for this, though.

tom

--
Tubes are the foul subterranean entrails of the London beast, stuffed
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"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
.li...
Breaking news!

David Brown is in TV right now, looking quite worn-out. He says that the
disruption is down to the state of roads around depots - TfL have kept the
red routes clear of snow, but depots are connected by minor roads under
the care of local authorities, and those have been blocked by snow. He
didn't seem to be blaming the councils for this, though.

Boris was saying much the same on Radio 4 at 1 pm. In reality, it's not
just access to and from the depots that is the problem. It's the fact that
most of the route mileage (I should think) is on borough roads. Also, since
TfL set their target of a bus route within 400 m of every home, there are
more routes along minor roads than ever before.

The party line from TfL has an implied criticism of borough road gritting
operations, though they stopped short of explicitly criticising them. It
only needs one borough along a particular route to underperform and the
whole route is knackered. For example, Chiswick High Road (L.B. Hounslow)
was gritted yesterday, the early morning traffic pushed the snow on to the
salt, and bingo, we had a clear(ish) road for the buses from Stamford Brook
Garage to enter. But I heard that King Street (LB Hammersmith & Fulham) was
an ice rink.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

In message , Richard J.
writes

The party line from TfL has an implied criticism of borough road
gritting operations, though they stopped short of explicitly
criticising them. It only needs one borough along a particular route
to underperform and the whole route is knackered.

Even so, there are a number of cancellations that I can see little
reason for. The 337, for instance, runs on red routes or well-cleared
main roads, and is garaged at Wandsworth, adjacent to the red route -
but there is still no sign of a single vehicle on the route.

When I looked at the LB of Richmond's list of roads for priority
gritting, they include not only the expected major roads but even small
side streets if they are bus routes. Thus, Avondale Road was cleared
first thing so that the 209 could reach its terminus - but no 209 has
appeared, either.
--
Paul Terry

Paul Terry wrote:

When I looked at the LB of Richmond's list of roads for priority
gritting, they include not only the expected major roads but even small
side streets if they are bus routes. Thus, Avondale Road was cleared
first thing so that the 209 could reach its terminus - but no 209 has
appeared, either.

The 209 goes through Hammersmith, doesn't it? Mind you, so do the 237
and 190, which are running. In fact, Brentford Garage is putting up a
good show - out of their routes (117 190 209 237 E2 E8) - only the 209
isn't down as running.

Something of a tribute to Hounslow's team, I reckon.

Tom