Or should it be ‘a week we won’t forget’. We knew the forecast last Tuesday evening was for snow, but no-one really expected what was to come.

We have a pretty basic plan for dealing with adverse winter weather. Snow and icy roads tend to arrive or be predicted for overnight. If our morning Inspector finds snow laying on roads at 0430 when he starts work, he has to obtain authorisation from one of three senior managers before any buses can take to the road at 0510. That normally means an early wake-up call for Mr SV, although when we have an adverse forecast managers are usually up at around 0400 to check for themselves in the areas in which they each live.

Last year snow arrived during the early morning after buses were already out on the road. This is bad news for us, with the predictable array of buses stranded on various Island hills.

Last week was far worse!!! Right in the middle of the afternoon rush hour. The only thing that could have been worse would have been if it was an hour earlier during the afternoon school run!

It’s 4pm and the phone rings. It’s raining (not even sleet so were feeling good!) but the windscreen wipers have detached themselves from one of our double deckers operating school services. It’s dropped one group of students and is on its way to Carisbrooke Schools. The depot only has two small single deckers and it’ll take both of them to accommodate all the students – can someone go and drive them while we sort out the double decker. Mr SV and one of the operational managers are off for a quick school run. Late to the school, but the staff there are kindly keeping the students informed and waiting. Give it just over an hour and we should be back at Newport garage for cuppa before we start our ‘end of day’ routine. Thats the point at which the phones stop ringing and the offices empty out – it’s a good time to get on with things in the ‘quiet’.

Little do we know what is heading toward the Island! We are only just into the school run when we encounter a blizzard of sleet. It’s not easy to drive in due to the volume, but it’s nice and wet! We make it to Sandown and consult on the road works that held us up on the way. We’re unanimous that we’ll head back ‘across the Downs’ as the quickest way. By now there’s no rain, sleet or anything at all – nice dry roads! Off we go but little more than a mile down the road we’re in a hailstorm the like we’ve not seen before. Almost immediately the roads are covered in a thick layer of hail, which then turns to snow in blizzard conditions. Luckily we just make it up ‘Bully’s Hill’, one of the Island’s severest hills, before the roads become a problem to negotiate. The snow continues unabated and cars are already strewn across junctions and on steep hills. Within half an hour we’ve got to the outskirts of Newport but are at a standstill. Or rather the other traffic is but our buses aren’t. Despite being stopped with handbrakes on, both buses are on an incline and gain a life of their own, requiring drastic maneuvering to bring them to a halt, Mr SV’s bus now being broadside across the road firmly resting its back wheels against a kerb.

In front we can see a Mercedes single decker operating route 9 with a motorcycle having slid into the front, and a double decker on route 8 stopped behind in thickening snow. The first task is to attend to the motorcyclist. Before long the ambulance service are on the scene, followed by the police. The road is now closed and none of us are going anywhere, with the snow still falling rapidly.

Eventually we’re underway again, but the 8 isn’t going to make it through the road we’ve come down. The passengers recognise that the conditions are making progress impossible, and we offer them a lift back to Newport to sit out the snowstorm. We’re only a mile or so out of town, but progress is slow, and eventually halted by attempts to allow a gritter to do its work on Snooks Hill. First the police escort is abandoned as it fails to gain any adhesion…then the gritter gets stranded sideways across the hill. It’s some while before a JCB arrives to clear the road and numerous cars are pushed out of the way.

So three and a half hours after leaving Sandown, we’re finally back in Newport, but only as far as the Bus Station. The poor passengers from the last 8 to leave Newport are now back there two hours after they left.

…to be continued

This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 12:34 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.