KHOODEELAAR! asks: 'Would CROSSRAIL have defied this week's snow and climate?’ Answer: NEVER!

2250 GMT 6 Feb 2009




From DAILY TELEGRAPH Lonon web site

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Travel chaos after a year's snow in two hours
Travel chaos has once again gripped parts of Britain after a year's worth of snow fell in just two hours in some areas.

By Nick Allen, Nick Britten and Jon Swaine
Last Updated: 10:42PM GMT 06 Feb 2009

Emergency services have been stretched to the limit in increasingly difficult conditions Photo: David Rose
Roads, railways and airports ground to a shuddering halt as they struggled to cope with the second heavy snowfall of the week.
Emergency services were stretched to the limit and had to call in the Army to help rescue more than 500 people from their cars when they became trapped in a freak blizzard near Exeter, Devon.
South Wales was virtually cut off from England when the two main bridge routes over the Severn were shut and other smaller roads were blocked by heavy snow. Slabs of ice a metre square fell 100 metres from the bridge gantries on to cars below, smashing their windscreens.
The M48 Severn Bridge reopened this evening but the M4 Second Severn Crossing remained closed.
Meanwhile Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, compounded the misery for motorists by saying they were partly blame for the road chaos, and telling the public to stop moaning about the disruption.
“Why has nobody got snow chains and why are you all whingeing about what the Government hasn’t done?” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying at a Westminster event.
“If you live in the Alps you have snow chains in the back of your car. So why have none of you intelligent, capable people got chains.”
With many councils forced to ration their grit use as supplies run low, it emerged that a container ship with 40,000 tonnes of salt is on the way from Spain and another re-supply ship from Germany is due to arrive next week.
More than one million children got an early start to the weekend as 4,000 schools closed their doors.
In Devon the Army had to be called out to rescue hundreds of motorists stranded overnight in sub-zero temperatures on the A38 and A380 south of Exeter.
Soldiers and police used 4x4s to reach the trapped drivers while others abandoned their vehicles and struggled to emergency shelters.
Shop assistant Claire Giner, 23, was on a coach which became stuck for five hours. She said: "It was unbelievable. One minute the road was completely clear and then ten minutes later it was covered in about a foot and a half of snow. The police were more like mountain rescue patrol. They had tractors and all sorts."
Sue Rolfe, 56, who abandoned her car on the A38 said: "They tried to open the road with snow ploughs but that didn't work. Everyone was stuck. It was chaos."
Andrea Dunn, 34, gave birth to twin girls, Elizabeth and Stephanie, after getting stuck in a blizzard. An ambulance couldn't reach her home in North Tawton, Devon and neither could an RAF Sea King helicopter so she was eventually rushed to hospital by a fire engine with snow chains.
Fire crew manager Twiggy Lake said: "We spent 40 minutes battling through snow drifts and falling trees and branches and debris. The snow was two feet deep or more in places."
At least 21,000 people in the West Country were left without power.
Across western England more than 1,000 schools were closed after five inches of snow fell in an hour in many places. Around 200 schools were closed in Buckinghamshire, 100 in Berkshire and 50 in Oxfordshire.
The vast majority of independent schools remained open all week while their state counterparts were criticised for succumbing to health and safety fears.
Sheila Thompson, from the Girls' Schools Association, said: "Independent schools have done everything to stay open. Hardly any have closed. One of the many virtues of being independent is that it's entirely up to the school whether they stay open."
Bus services were suspended across Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North Somerset and rural areas across the region found themselves virtually snowed in.
Flights were suspended at Bristol and Luton airports and there were cancellations at Stansted. Blizzards were reported as far apart as Dorset and Northern Ireland.
Luton Council issued an official warning to people not to go into the town because snow was falling faster than it could grit the roads.
Northamptonshire was also brought to a near standstill and dangerous driving conditions were reported in Bristol, and on the M5 and M4.
Two sledgers had a miracle escape when their toboggan careered down a hill and plummeted off a 100ft sheer drop, landing in thick gorse bushes on Dunstable Downs in Bedfordshire. Rescuers climbed down on ropes to reach them in a four hour operation.
A couple whose car skidded into a ditch in Cornwall were suffering from hypothermia when they were rescued by a Royal Navy helicopter six hours later.
A man found by the side of a road with minor injuries died today after being treated for hypothermia.
David Edwards, 23, from Ebbw Vale, south Wales, was discovered by a passer-by in freezing temperatures at the side of Letchworth Road in the town at around 6.10am.
Hospitals were also affected with John Radcliffe and Horton Hospitals in Oxfordshire, and Kettering General Hospital, cancelling planned operations.
The AA said it had attended more than 70,000 breakdowns since Monday. Yesterday, it was receiving 250 breakdown calls every 15 minutes as councils struggled to find salt to grit the roads.
The country's two biggest producers of gritting salt together can produce only 70,000 tonnes a week but the Highways Agency alone is getting through 25,000 tonnes a day. It has only three days' worth left. Some local councils have used more than 5,000 tonnes each this week.
In December Cheshire-based Salt Union, which provides 90 per cent of the salt used on Britain's roads, had a stockpile of 400,000 tonnes but that is all gone.
Richard Kemp, deputy chairman of the Local Government Association said: "In some countless it's getting critical. The Government is trying to move stocks around but this is heavy stuff to move."
Worcestershire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire are among those rationing grit runs and giving priority to motorways.
Cllr Stan Waddington, Gloucestershire's cabinet member for environment, said: "We know that there are some councils who have salt available - salt that we desperately need.
"At the moment we are unable to convince these councils to release just a small amount of their supplies which would keep us moving until the national crisis is over."
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