Success!

[andrewducker]

Buses all stopped
Trains cancelled
Forth Road bridge closed

We've done it! We've cut off the north!
===
The above arrived via email from my brother, currently trapped in his office at the bottom of a steep hill.

Yes, Snowcopalypse 2010 continues. The local bus company announced "Unfortunately due to the severity of the bad weather, there will be an interruption to all of our services.", and the office is about half full today. I know a few people that tried to get in today but had to turn around and head home because there was no way here.

Before people chime in with "Why are we so awful at dealing with the snow?" - I'd like to point out that Edinburgh hasn't had snow like this in decades. If it happened every year we'd be dealing with it a lot better.

Comments

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

Snowpocalypse? I thought this was Wintergeddon...

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

We had snow like this last January!

[andrewducker]

We didn't have snow this deep. It was colder, right enough, but the volume of snow in Edinburgh was a fair bit lower.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

You sure? I remember tramping through it on my flathunting Sundays and it was pretty deep.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

The snow was definitely not like this. We haven't had snow like this since I lived here.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

No we didn't. Ice was the killer last year, not snow. There was a smaller amount of snow that froze and didn't go away for a month, but nothing like this much snow. It's *never* been this deep in all the years I've lived here.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

I was never stuck from driving last January - I managed to commute no problem. This is far far worse.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

But the buses ran last week :( have there been on going mechanical difficulties that I wasn't aware of with the snow?

[andrewducker]

Nope, it's just nasty out there at the moment. There's constant snowfall, at a speed which means that it's constantly slippy, and the roads always have a surface of snow, no matter how much traffic there is on it. It's just not safe for the buses.

[heyokish.livejournal.com]

Made it to glasgow this morning, and now I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to make it back. Amazed that the train got through given that it was throwing it down with snow and we got stuck at frozen points a couple of times.

Glasgow is made of thick, sloppy slush. Ugh.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

There is a great myth that other countries who get more snow than us deal with it better. Fact is when it snows places like Norway, Germany etc. get brought to a halt as well. Yes they may get it cleared quicker if they have more equipment to deal with it, but when you get more than a few inches of snow, until it stops coming down there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

That would have been tremendous fun if I hadn't already been at work when the notice went up. Our whole office was having kittens over how to get home, and whether it would be safe to walk from the Gyle to the city centre :S

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Oh god, trains aren't cancelled again, are they??

[andrewducker]

I'd check...

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Some are.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Bridge was only closed one way!! I got home. Six and a half hours I drove solidly for today - all around Edinburgh and home again. Doubt I'll be in town tomorrow.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

Stay warm, my friend.

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

Fortunately, it's not that cold. We're only going to hit -5 tonight, and then it's going to get warmer over the rest of the week. It took me half an hour to walk home, but I had a coat and gloves, so that was fine.

[dalglir.livejournal.com]

"Before people chime in with "Why are we so awful at dealing with the snow?" - I'd like to point out that Edinburgh hasn't had snow like this in decades. If it happened every year we'd be dealing with it a lot better."

Indeed. The 86 year old gent and his wife across the road have lived in Edinburgh all their lives and said that they'd never seen snow like this here...

[dommy-nick.livejournal.com]

I've never seen snow this deep in my life.

I almost ended up walking all 17 miles home this afternoon had it not been for Secret Inside Info from PrinceAlbert, which let me know that there was at least 1 train running.

Not bloody going in tomorrow if I'm going to have this same hassle trying to get home.

I spent 20 minutes on the phone to my line manager explaining the complexities of "no public transport + not driving on this stuff = I am not going to be in work tomorrow. Especially since I have no work and yes, I know what the official line is about absence due to foul weather, but the staff policies were written about 40 years ago when everyone lived about 2 miles from work. He said he'd check with Someone More Senior and come back to me and he hasn't yet. I've just checked my work email and still no response. Good thing I didn't hang round waiting for him to reply or I'd still have been there now.

Dommy_nick

[andrewducker]

That's completely ridiculous. I hope they see sense.

[dommy-nick.livejournal.com]

Me too, but not holding my breath.

Still, am only there for another month before I lose my job due to staff cuts.

[cyprinella]

Ugh, sounds like you're getting hit as hard as we did in Washington,DC last year with similar results. Stay safe and warm!