It snow go!

It is amazing, when you think about it, that as little as six inches of snow can bring the entire country to a standstill. I mean driving on an ungritted and unploughed road is going to be tricky, especially in something like a Smart Car, but trains? Airports? Should we really accept the pleas of managers when they claim unprecedented amounts of snow as a catch all excuse?

Take Heathrow Airport, one of the main hubs in the world of aviation: It has not snowed there for three days, and yet just one runway has been cleared of snow. And they cannot get equipment around and under aircraft parked at a terminal to clear snow. On average there is 32 tonnes of snow under each family sized passenger aircraft. It would appear the plan, as it is, is to wait and hope that the weather warms up. And then the passengers will go away. If only there were items of machinery that could clear a runway of snow; thankfully no other countries in the world have snow as heavy as London has experienced since the weekend.

Oh, wait a minute……

Yes, airports all over the world in extreme latitudes cope somehow; planes take off; planes land; passengers are not delayed. Heck, planes take off and land on icy runways! Is that impossible to happen in London ? Maybe we have different types of ice. Yes, that is it; different kind of ice that the snow sweeping machines cannot cope with.

So, is it any surprise than an airport that operates at 98% most of the time, that when something goes slightly awry, maybe we should just accept that six inches of snow will result in the average passenger having to sleep on the floor of the departure hall. Heavens forbid they could actually come up with a solution…

And then they are trains; since the steam locomotive was invented at the beginning of the 19th century, devices like ploughs have been invented to clear snow from lines so that the papers, milk would be delivered on time. During the harsh winters of 1947 and 1963, trains still ran, papers, milk, coal, etc were still delivered. Who would have thought that here in the future when we should all be living in cloud houses, wearing silver suits and eating meals in pill form, that our modern, sleek, fast trains could be stopped by a couple of inches of snow? Can it really be beyond the realms of possibilities that someone could find a way to get our modern trains cope with snow?

Where I live, in Kent; or New Siberia as it is being called, we have had maybe a foot of snow since the weekend. Which, is a fair amount. And yet our local TOCs trains cannot get enough grip due to the fact they are so light and use third rail electricity. Three years ago after a similar amount of snow it was discovered that the modern EMU cannot be coupled to a locomotive and be hauled; this was to be rectified. Well, we see how well that went! There is talk of heating the third rail; this would cost hundreds of millions of pounds to do over the entire network, and would cost millions per winter to operate. So, what we are saying is the Victorians could get and keep the trains running; so could the Edwardians; heck, even the much-maligned British Rail could keep the trains running. But the power of market forces and the horizontal privatisation of the rail network cannot.

In closing; let us hope that the cold does not continue for three months as happened in years gone by, as we will all starve as we all by our goods are not now local but our milk comes from Yorkshire , probably, so the breakdown in transport infrastructure has huge implications. What happened when millions of people cannot get into work; shops have nothing to sell? It’ll be Lord of the Flies all over again. I have an idea; let’s eat the bankers and the weathermen; problem solved!

Goodnight.