It’s not very impressive is it?
The whole city brought to a halt over snow which could have largely been dealt with had London’s councils bothered to get the grit out. The main street where I live didn’t get gritted until well after 10am this morning, far too late given the extent of the snow was known last night.
The capital’s bus network is vital yet fleets of buses are stranded in their garages because roads have been left impassable by the boroughs.
A travel update from Transport for London sent at 10.30 this morning says the body is “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.“
Well done to TfL for the news that a limited service “has resumed on a small number of bus routes including routes 16, 36, and 73 in central London” but from where I’m sitting it seems the capital has been badly let down by its boroughs.
Hopefully in his capacity as head of TfL Boris will abandon his ‘whatever the Boroughs want to do is fine by me’ position long enough give them the dressing down they deserve.
Update: David Hughes is blaming Boris and the boroughs for this one, but the TfL red routes I’ve seen all appeared to be nicely gritted, unlike the local authority controlled ones.
Martin Paling says
February 2, 2009 at 1:45 pmIt’s certainly somewhat bizarre that the roads were not gritted… but they were not here in the rural east midlands either.
That said despite heavy snow all day our buses and dustmen have continued to work despite having to travel 40 miles to get to my village along some typically hazardous rural roads. That TFL and the boroughs can’t maintain a service is beyond belief… how many vital services and companies have been affected I wonder?
Tom says
February 2, 2009 at 7:03 pmIf you look at all the TfL controlled CCTV cameras, all the TfL controlled roads are nicely gritted. Also, my home borough of Hounslow appears to have done a good job, so it’s not just boroughs = bad either.
Martin Paling – I understand London’s actually borne the brunt of it – it’s certainly the worst snowfall in the 12 years I’ve lived here. Given that, the decision to abandon all buses last night looks sensible – you don’t want buses skidding into buildings in a vainglorious attempt to keep going.
What’s actually missing is a joined up gritting plan that prioritises the busiest bus routes and main roads and ensures that no authority can get away with not pulling its weight. This can only really be done with Mayoral support and an attitude of centre > boroughs, which I’m not sure Boris is up for.
Martin P says
February 2, 2009 at 8:50 pmBBC London say London has had 8inchs in places… We’ve only had 6inchs….
those two inchs say it all… that said our roads are generally more hazardous