I live the Bromsgrove side of Birmingham and couldn't get uber to deliver food, I ordered it at ten past 7 and they cancelled because there weren't any drivers by 10. And Bromsgrove might as well be Cardiff for those guys.
I do and I was. The roads, while not necessarily an issue for a competent driver (so that rules out taxis...) on quiet roads, quickly became a lost cause. The snow came down thick and fast while the roads were still busy, so it predictably ground to a halt very quickly. Cars abandoned, HGVs stuck, buses stuck - the service in south Birmingham was curtailed and then completely abandoned - and there was even a council gritter/snowplough stuck in it.
Heritage railways are entirely irrelevant to a discussion about a working railway, timescales, line utilisation levels, line speeds, requirement to be up and running again etc are completely different. The only similarity is that the H&S requirements for both for removing felled trees are exactly the same.
This is not comparing apples with oranges at all. I work on the main line and volunteer on a heritage railway so know that the two are not comparable in any way, other than above, H&S requirements.
www.railforums.co.uk
Can we have a third option for the people who want to speculate about what is happening?I have created a speculative thread here:
How should the railway handle storms?
Moderator note - split from: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/storm-goretti.296983/ Indeed, mostly trees from what I can see. For today they’ve looked out the window and decided accordingly. They didn’t decide two days ago to bin everything off just in case. These webcams from the Edale...
All posts going forward should be discussing what is actually happening please.
Was the snow forecast quite that far North? Seems that it's been parts of the West Midlands and East Midlands that have been adversely impacted by Storm Goretti heavy snow. Anywhere else?
Flooding on the line is what I've been told by Network Rail. Line block in place until Monday
Similarly. I used to have a 30 mile rail journey to work and on snowy days I would find that I was the only person who made it into the office. That was 15 years ago though in the days when the train service didn't preemptively get cancelled because of the risk of two inches of snow.
No, South Yorks and Peak District were about the furthest north of anything that wasn’t just an odd shower.
The route proving train, 2Z99 just entered the county let’s see how far it gets
There is a chance the line block mentioned is only for a branch line
Including train crew being put up in hotels across the region overnight. Which won't be available to work their shifts today
Is this not related to the Liskeard - Looe branch which has been closed for a while?
Yes you're right.
Winter can be brutal over there. Over the years I've seen dozens of people skating on frozen canals, significant snowfall and freezing rain. Cycling back from the station to my grandmother's house was interesting to put it mildly.
For info I left Birmingham (by the Childrens hospital) at 2130 last night intending to stay on the A34 all the way to Great Wyrley. I had reached the outskirts of Walsall in 30 minutes but it was obvious the roads were untreated and the very wet snow was becoming ice at one degree above. All sorts of vehicles were having serious traction issues and I didn't fancy sliding down the hill on the Broadway so cut through the town instead. The problem I encountered was NXWM buses trying to get up the hill towards their depot at Birchills, so I decided to divert back onto the A34 where I got stuck behind more buses. There was an RS recovery truck with its winch cable out trying to assist the procession of buses, but there was no police presence to try and get some order going. Fortunately the RS guy helped me out by using his 4x4 to drag me up the hill, and RS Recovery pretty much saved the day, and Assume they are contracted to NXWM.
