A Gritty Affair…
One of the aspects of our national life which bemuses foreign visitors is the inability of our transport system to cope with snowfalls. Yesterday we had headlines forecasting the travel chaos which inevitably attends a snow fall.
Four years ago, one Thursday evening I set off as per normal to my constituency. I heard that there were some snow showers about, but thought nothing of it. Suddenly, half way there, near to Stansted Airport I found myself in a gridlock traffic jam, unable to move, as the snow fell. I was stuck for thirteen hours. Fortunately I had had a big lunch and so had some food in the car, some water, and in the boot, a couple of blankets and some gumboots. Others around me were less fortunate. The condition of the M11 was so glacial that anybody with leather soles slipped badly and quickly. It was like a scene from a horror movie – children trapped in cars, elderly people the same, and commuters only wearing their office clothes. You can read the full story by following this link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003050857,00.html
Next morning, bright and sunny, police helicopters irritatingly hovered overhead.
Firstly there were no warning signs about the gridlock, no radio messages, no effort by the emergency services to drive down the closed but traffic-free other side of the motorway, to see if anybody needed emergency help. What had happened is that the Highways Agency had neglected to grit the road surface, despite the earlier warnings: allegedly because of windy conditions. You couldn’t make it up.
I look forward to tonight’s journey to Suffolk with some trepidation.