Kingston And Snow Chaos
By Clare1960 | Thursday, December 02, 2010, 17:49
Well the white stuff finally hit Kingston, the rest of London and the South East causing predicted chaos.
-
View from my window by @awad_N17
I spent some of the morning telling students on twitter that Kingston University was closed. @RocketMinx on hearing the (good) news went straight back to bed.
South West Trains where delayed for no known reason. It took @JonDmyers one and a half hours to get into the office rather than the normal 27 minutes. @lotusblossomk then struggled to get home again this afternoon. But at least South West Trains were actually running there was no such luck if you needed Southern or South East Trains as they were all cancelled.
One of my colleagues over at NewMaldenPeople found out the reason why.
Gatwick and London City Airports where completely closed and the other London airports had delays. This left some Kingstonians like @lisamairepower worried about being stranded abroad.
If you haven't read any of the winter driving tips provided by @EnjoyMoreADI and etyres then you should as the police are advising people to take car on the road.
The only good thing is that Kingston Council finally decided to publish it's Winter Maintenance Plan. Shame it wasn't there on earlier in the month before the snow.
If you want to find out what schools are closed then listen to Radio Jackie or go to their website.
Lots of events have been postponed or cancelled due to the weather. Banquet Records have postponed @thefutureheads tonight but New Slang is still going ahead with half the money at the door going to Shelter. The Stragglers cancelled their club night due to the Hawker Centre being closed and have warned runners to be careful.
If you have any pictures of the snow why not post them on the gallery or message me via twitter like some readers have done all ready?
Comments
I realise that we cannot expect London to be prepared for snow like Chicargo or Oslo but when it comes to effective communication and information for the public there is not excuse for the failure of TfL, SW trains and other operators to provide necessary information.
Yesterday from 630am through till after 8am you could not access the TfL telephone line to establish just what was operating.
The website for TfL and SW Trains and the bus operators were equally lacking in updated information.
Later in the day SW Trains were not running from Waterloo to Kingston but without adequte explanation.
In the morning I had two mates and their six month child trying to get to Heathrow. Staff at Kingston Bus Station had no information that they could provide on the X26. When I finally managed to get through to TfL the chap said "the operators don't tell us anything when it is good weather and we are the last to know now"!
When will someone take responsibility for this failure to prepare?
By CanburyWatch at 07:57 on 03/12/10
Report