How's UK railway dealing with the snow?

[wholbr]

Hi Rob And everybody

Hi Bill,
Can't believe £170 for Somerset to London! Is that the cheapest option? I'm a bit out of touch with long distance train fares. It's £12 for a ride on the Llangollen Railway, that was my last journey recently.
Rob.

Yes Rob £170 is the price Weston-super-Mare to London Paddington with a zone one underground addition (I think it was a couple pound more than that actually)


There are cheaper fares if you can travel off peak and book well in advance. However, if you have no alternative but to travel during the peak periods to be in London between 9 AM and 11 AM then only standard rate fares apply.


The problem is that first Great Western know only too well that the above times are when the majority of people needing to go up to London for work or business will want to arrive. The best part about yesterday (Thursday) was that the company needed some original signed documents from a vehicle maintenance contractor advising what time a vehicle arrived at their garage for service as they have suspended a depot manager pending disciplinary action.


Therefore all I had to do (as I had carried out the root Cause accident investigation) was to take the original documents up to their head office in London, have them signed for and return to Somerset That cost £170 pound in fares together with my charges for the day. I would have traveled off peak had it been up to me but they stated they wanted the documents in their office as early as possible as the disciplinary hearing is today.


It was a very pleasant journey going up as I had a seat on the through train and had the pleasure of watching everybody who got on after Bath stand all the way up there. The nightmare started after that with all the crowds on the underground, the student riots going on only a couple of street from where we were in Holborn and then everybody else having the pleasure of watching me and many dozens of others stand virtually all the way back. To end the wonderful journey there was then the delay with the connection at Bristol Temple Mead's


If you think,”why didn't he book a seat” it was because I did not know till late on Wednesday that I even needed to go up there. Still as I said it must be better than trying to drive up the motorway and back at this time of year.

Bill

 

[IsambardKingdomBrunel]

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[PJandDRC]

I left the UK in the 60's and we certainly had some real winters during the 50's and 60' s The pictures I see posted here are not really snow but deep slush, not even worth putting a plough on the front.

I can recall it took a hell of a lot of snow to stop the steamers from getting through. When I was in the Navy, unfortunately, I was never stopped from returning from leave because of bad weather!! Thanks LNER.
The modern plastic electric train cars of today just can't hack it.

As for aircraft, today's planes are so darn big and full of electronics they get scared as soon as the temp drops or a spot of precipitation appears on the horizon. Not like the old DC3's and constellations, when most of the pilots were ex military pilots and knew how to fly a plane.

Do the bottoms of British cars still drop out from rust, due to the tons of salt they pour on the roads in winter?

FWIW

 

[amigacooke]

Do the bottoms of British cars still drop out from rust, due to the tons of salt they pour on the roads in winter?

Nope because they don't put tons of salt on the roads in winter. Vehicular skating is so much more fun!

 

[wholbr]

Hi Everybody

Nope because they don't put tons of salt on the roads in winter. Vehicular skating is so much more fun!

I have to say that the criticism that the Council workers are receiving with regard to keeping the motorways and A Roads open I feel is totally unjustified.


As a heavy goods vehicle driver up until the late 80s I was always impressed by the efforts they made then and still do now to have the roads kept open and clear for use throughout freezing cold nights so that commuters could safely drive their cars into work in the morning.


I used to start work at around 2 AM as a driver and you would always see them both on motorways and on the A Roads gritting throughout the night. I think what people do not realize is that if it is snowing then the grit thaws the snow and the resulting water runs off of the road taking the salt with it. Therefore within an hour or two the roads have to be gritted again if it is to be prevented from turning into an ice rink.


The grit vehicles spreading system very often gets clogged and it is then for the driver to get out and clear the system as best he can with the small shovels and picks supplied to them and getting covered in salt when they are doing it. Speaking for myself i was always glad to see them and they have kept me safe on many a very cold frosty or snowy night when I was a truck vehicle driver, and I certainly would say a very big thanks for that.


But what thanks are they getting in Britain now, NOTHING. Many people now writing in the media and press probably have never got out of bed before eight o'clock in the morning and then expect everything to be perfect for their journey to work, WHAT RUBBISH.


And what of the Council workers future. Well, almost all of them are to receive wage cuts at the start of the new financial year or even worse than that many thousands will face redundancy due to the government and Council cuts. These cuts have been brought in as a result of the banking crisis which doubtless was caused by the “city workers” that now criticize their efforts in the press.


Excuse my rant, but I could not feel stronger on this one.


Bill

 

[mezzoprezzo]

Spot on Bill.

We have friends and relatives in mainland Europe who we are lucky enough to stay with during the summer months.

They invest in what is expected during their harsh winters. Snow has been lying at less than 1000 metres recently. Those who have to drive through snow covered roads each winter invest and fit a set of snow tyres to their family cars.

How many UK car owners do the same? They don’t because the likelihood of them being needed is pretty remote.

So why should councils, or other responsible authorities, spend out on, stockpile and maintain expensive hardware that is unlikely to be needed in the majority of winters?

Cheers
Casper

 

[robd]

@ robd - Are the trains dear from the west country to the 'home' counties then? I got an e-mail from East Coast yesterday offering £8 seats from Edinburgh to London. Only condition was you had to be a member of the Imbojiwandi tribe from the Upper Amazon basin, born on the 29th February 1988 and married to a fat lass from Chester-le-Street called Irene. I was so close, however Mr Stelliopolis or whatever his name is, will be flying me back to the homeland for hogmanay. The Bottle shop is fully stocked and lorne sausage, pies and bridies will be in short supply for others in my vicinity.

Pity you missed such a generous offer by such a narrow margin - is your birthday on 28th February?

Sounds like you'll be pigging out at Hogmanay - enjoy it!

 

[pfx]

Pity you missed such a generous offer by such a narrow margin - is your birthday on 28th February?

Sounds like you'll be pigging out at Hogmanay - enjoy it!

Piggin out and drinking tins of heavy. Another thing I miss being over here.

 

[Mike10]

And what of the Council workers future. Well, almost all of them are to receive wage cuts at the start of the new financial year or even worse than that many thousands will face redundancy due to the government and Council cuts. These cuts have been brought in as a result of the banking crisis which doubtless was caused by the “city workers” that now criticize their efforts in the press.

The councils have also spent our money on bonuses for the chiefs and lots of non-jobs. That's why there will be cut backs to frontline services. It is not all the fault of 'The City'. (Although Labour have been very stupid for the last 13 years and have repeated their trick of ruining the country's economy which they practiced the first time during the 70s)

One can only hope they realise that the dustmen, street cleaners, road maintenance staff etc are worth keeping and the traveller outreach facilitators, five a day co-ordinators, global warming management teams and all the other PC "fluff" are not.

Mike.

 

[pfx]

PC "fluff".
Mike.

Quite right. DOWN WITH PC FLUFF!!!

 

[wholbr]

One can only hope they realise that the dustmen, street cleaners, road maintenance staff etc are worth keeping and the traveller outreach facilitators, five a day co-ordinators, global warming management teams and all the other PC "fluff" are not.
Mike.

Hi Mike and Everybody.
Well Mike I think everybody would agree with your comment regarding the need to maintain employment within the councils of people who “Really” work and to get rid of the “fluff title jobs” that have come to pervade throughout the public sector in Britain. Unfortunately I get the feeling that it is not going to happen.

Without getting into the rights and wrongs of various government actions since the 1970s, I have to say that since the mid-80s all governments have peddled the notion that the UK can survive without anyone having to get their hands dirty while working. I believe the events of the last two years have shown everyone what a “Farce” that notion truly is.

We have become reliant in the UK and throughout many other countries not only in Europe but also in the United States on one industry “finance”. Governments were keen to dismiss heavy manufacturing industry as “The Old Metal Bashing Industries” and that they were outmoded and not needed by the modern Western economies. Well all I can say to that is that countries like India and China seem have done very well out of our old metal bashing industries.

Only now when it is too late do we hear the British government along with other Western governments talking of the need for their countries to manufacture and export. After the policies they have pervaded in the last 20 years or more that one really makes me laugh.

I also believe that the above rubbish has also been peddled in our schools, where the notion that the country can survive with everyone sitting behind desks staring at the computer screen has been preached wholesale by tutors. Anyone with a white-collar job are held up as a success, whereas anyone who earns his living by getting his hands dirty is held up as a failure.

Time all the above was changed and Western countries re-learned to respect people who are prepared to get their hands dirty whether that be in manufacturing, building or maintaining the infrastructure of our cities, roads and railways. it is what keeps all of us going.

Bill

 

[amigacooke]

Deleted by poster.

 

[wholbr]

Nope because they don't put tons of salt on the roads in winter. Vehicular skating is so much more fun!

With all due respect, But didn't you get the thread off-topic when you made the above remark.

Bill

 

[amigacooke]

With all due respect, But didn't you get the thread off-topic when you made the above remark.

Bill

Went off topic long before that when Blackwatch brought Scottish independance into it. Suddenly devolution and the perfidity of the English were the central theme.

 

[wholbr]

For pedants sake I'd point out that England and Scotland became an administrative unit because a Scottish king succeeded to the English throne.

At that stage you seemed to be very happy to join in the debate and take it further off-topic.

when you state something people have a right to respond and develop the point as they see fit

Bill
-------------
Baaaa

 

[amigacooke]

when you state something people have a right to respond and develop the point as they see fit

Good luck, it's all yours.

 

[IsambardKingdomBrunel]

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[BLACKWATCH]

Went off topic long before that when Blackwatch brought Scottish independance into it. Suddenly devolution and the perfidity of the English were the central theme.

Excuse me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out post #31 by 'mike10', I think you will find that to be the first reference to the 'Scottish' issue.

 

[IsambardKingdomBrunel]

post deleted

 

[leeferr]

Why is all of this political talk not a violation of the CoC? I'd like to see this thread get back on topic.

Mike