How so? You have a single set of gates that is only used for dewatering for maintenance and emergencies. They don’t impede normal traffic and don’t cost anything like a full lock with level change.
The union canal has these in spots, certainly at the edinburgh end. Maybe the breach occurred in an awkward place for the use of these.
I’m guessing Scottish Canals and their insurers are frantically reading small print!
I am not sure that gates would have helped much initially, in that weather there would be no one out to discover the problem as it happened, so only as the water level was noted to be dropping, then the cause would have to be found and people to get to the gates and operate them, all takes time.
There are a very few places where I’ve seen automatic stop gates that work by detecting the flow, eg on the Gloucester and Sharpness. But that’s a more serious waterway...
Amusingly if you peel enough of the Scottish Canals label off they still have "British Waterways Board" written underneath, but yes they're a public corporation in the same way Scottish Water is.
That’s OK it seems, because Scottish Canals is the public name of the British Waterways Board, which transferred all its infrastructure in England and Wales to CRT:
www.scottishcanals.co.uk
All automagically handled by ARS. A lot of 5Zxx ECS services shunting from one platform to the other at Falkirk Grahamston, by reversing on the Grangemouth branch. The only tricky bit is when the Short-Term Timetable Planners use the same number for two trains only a few minutes apart.
That’s OK it seems, because Scottish Canals is the public name of the British Waterways Board, which transferred all its infrastructure in England and Wales to CRT:
”The British Waterways Board, operating as Scottish Canals, continues in Scotland as a stand alone public body following the transfer of the functions of the British Waterways Board in England and Wales to the Canal & River Trust on 2nd July 2012.”
Our Structure and Governance - Scottish Canals Corporate
The British Waterways Board, operating as Scottish Canals, is a stand alone public body.
... and isn’t that exactly what they say in the link I quoted and posted?
... and isn’t that exactly what they say in the link I quoted and posted?
No problem.
They didn't say that they're using all the buses in Scotland, just all the bus capacity that's available. Perhaps the coach hire companies have declined the job.
On the (bus) drivers bit, surely now the furlough is flexible, there is no barrier to getting drivers back as and when they are required, and shouldn't even factor into things (in fact, there will probably be more uncertainly if they don't start getting some work!)
I don't know that actual issues but control have told me they are struggling to obtain enough PSVAR compliant vehicles from their operator database as a considerable number of their nominated contractors are still closed.
it’s not just drivers though - presumably the coach firms that are closed down have furloughed all the admin and maintenance staff as well. It’s probably not worth the admin of opening up the depot and unfurloughing/refurloughing unless it is several weeks guaranteed work
If the coach firms are in a similar position to the hotel/hostel sector then many companies have likely made their 2020 financial plans on the basis of zero income until close to Xmas, so bridging loans and/or lines of credit have been agreed with their banks already. It may not be worth it to open up for the volume of work that is on offer.
