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Bad weather alert
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
In Hong Kong they have a system where if there's a hurricane or something approaching they announce it on the news, radio, internet, etc and if it's over a certain number you don't have to go to work or school that day.
Given today's weather shouldn't we have some kind of similar system in place?
Given today's weather shouldn't we have some kind of similar system in place?
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uni will be closed tomorrow as well by the looks of it
btw, the met office does announce it via the web, news on tv and in the papers and on the radio...and shouldn't it be the own person's choice to decide if they go into work or not?
I've been at work today, and yes it's been difficult in some places but as long as people take it steady everything is still working.
I was in New York just before Xmas and there was between half a foot and a foot of snow everywhere. Our flight home was only delayed by two hours!
Ooooooh, hark at the civil servant!
Exactly. Canada doesn't grind to a halt because they have to deal with it every year and the machines and infrastructure used to combat it is a a worthwhile investment.
People shouldn't be a going anywhere they don't really have to, it's dangerousl.
The usual. Our capital city has come to a bloody standstill. The London Underground's on a hopelessly reduced service, the buses are barely running, people were having to walk several miles to work. And this on the day that the Chinese Prime Minister was busy visiting Jonah Brown in Downing Street! We must be a total laughing stock to the people of Beijing. A little bit of snow and half the country's come to a halt.
Whole swathes of the USA get this kind of weather all the time. The same in Canada. Has nobody in local government actually thought it might be a good idea to ask these people how they keep their transport systems running smoothly during heavy snow? Heck, we could even ask the Russians about it! In any other country, this would cause uproar. Here, it's tolerated - because it continues to happen again, and again, and again...
UPDATE: Amusing quote from London mayor Boris Johnson. Speaking to Radio 2 today about the bad weather, he said "We have the right kind of snow, just the wrong quantity". What would we do without Boris, eh?
But wouldn't you also write a tirade if the government spend billions on infrastructure suited to a once every other decade occurance?
I'm pretty sure he would. :yes: I'm thinking that besides death and taxes, SG is becoming one of life's guarantees
SG, haven't you read anyone else's posts?
The USA/Canada/Russia cope with this sort of thing because they have the infrastructure to deal with it. They have bad winters all the time. For us the cost of buying and maintaining the equipment will be far more than the cost of shutting up shop for a couple of days, considering we only ever have snow like this every 10-15 years or so. Honestly, the last time I can remember weather like this was way back in the very early 90's when I was 7/8 years old. Buying snow-ploughs e.t.c. isn't cost-effective. As long as the emergency services can get through (which we can, because thanks to the Civil contingencies act every police force has to have a pool of 4x4 vehicles scattered around) then who cares if some rich city bankers can't get to work and make a few more million quid?
Come off it. If the government forked out millions for the purcahse and upkeep of machnes to combat conditions that only appear once every couple of decades you'd be the first to whinge.
Parts of the Underground and domestic networks have been under upto 5 FOOT of snow today due to snow drifts, its not that easy. London's mainline routes were heavily affected by staff simply being unable to get into work as roads were unpassable and nightbuses suspended. A friend of mine was meant to start work at London Waterloo at 4am, the nightbuses were all suspended and with the tube in disarray he finally arrived at 9am to be one of the only ones who had managed to make it in, drivers and train crew simply stuck.
Most Northern town and cities (especially East of the Pennines) have had a good 2-4inches and we've managed to run a near normal service (around 80% punctuality). The rail and LU networks can cope with normal snow levels much better than any other form of land transport but when faced with the snow levels today and other transport collapsing around it rail has suffered.
Hopefully we will see much improved service tomorrow.
Exactly. My branch of the District Line and the whole of the Circle Line are still closed at the moment. Taking the opportunity to work from home again - although some people seem to think this is a slack option. It was either sit on the bus for over an hour, or get on with some urgent work. I know which I would pick, every time.
:yuck:
I know but still.
Rich is the only one from his team who made it into the office both today and yesterday because all of them are from out of London except him. None of the others (rightly so!), including his boss, wanted to risk getting stuck in London again.
It's not as easy as preparing for it, either. There was salt up and down the road outside Rich's flat on Sunday night (before the snow started) - largely because it's a main route for ambulances. It was on the pavement as well, but by yesterday morning, when the snow outside his front door was more than ankle-deep, there was no salt left to be seen because of how heavy the snow was. It had landed, melted on the salt, then more snow had turned that into ice and just landed on top of it. I'm taking the risk of it not snowing tonight and getting up at godawful-am tomorrow to get to my lecture because I know if I go outside I'll fall over and, knowing me, land on my only-just-starting-to-feel-better wrist again.
In countries that keep things running in less-than-ideal weather, it's not just the government that takes care of it. Where I live almost everybody owns an extra set of tyres and those that don't purchase them/put them under tend to be the ones that block traffic and slow things down. So annoying. Then there's other smaller stuff people purchase to make it so that they can get to work.
Besides, the first day of bad weather is never smooth. There's always delays and things are bound to take more time.
It's simply not cost efficient to prepare for every rare occurance that might slow things down or interrupt businesses. Where I live it is cost efficient because the cost of not doing it will be higher.
It was amusing to see a picture of UK police officers with shovels on the front page of today's newspaper here. Not what the police here has to do.
Circle Line is an easy way to close when problems occur as its pretty much all covered by other routes if needs be. As the day goes on today we're getting more mainline stuff back, almost back to normal in most places but a lot of people again aren't going into work.
Yup - I have to go to Earl's Court (or Gloucester Road) and change to the District Line to Stamford Brook. It's not a long journey, but I would prefer to work at home than seek alternative means which would undoubtedly double or triple the journey time.
I've been watching local weather reports (Wales) and they're now saying that parts of the country are now running low on grit and salt. Honestly...