An ice day in Plymouth

Another day starts with ice on the roads causing chaos.

Well yesterday was fun again wasn't it? No one can say it wasn't expected: FLASH Warning of Widespread Icy Roads for South West England valid from 1700 Sun to 1100 Mon 01 Feb and they were right - it was quite icy first thing in the morning. Citybus could see problems ahead when they posted on Twitter at 9:33pm on Sunday "Expect problems on Monday morning if no gritting is done". You can see below how the day went from the bus companies perspective. I just missed the last 15 that went through Mainstone towards Asda and just before that a 50 came down through Keswick Crescent with no problem at all. Waiting on Miller way though it was clear that conditions were getting worse, not better. I finally got a 50 at just after 8:30 which slowly and very carefully made its way through to Derriford. We saw three 15's coming the other way too so they were getting back to normal again pretty quickly. There were a few minor accidents and a lot of near misses - buses trying to turn into and out of Asda were having problems - glad I wasn't travelling that way myself. Sparksy on the Radio summed it up quite nicely: Very icy and roads don't seem to have been gritted. Be careful out there this morning! Bus routes were scrapped and motorists faced rush hour delays and diversions as a number of roads across Plymouth became dangerous or unpassable. Police had reports of a number of minor incidents, motorists reversing up one-way roads to avoid ice, injured cyclists and a crash involving a bus. At 8.20am a Plymouth Citybus bus, which was carrying passengers, skidded on ice on Commercial Road, Coxside, and hit bollards on the pavement. This is Plymouth Richard Holifield, Plymouth transport and highways manager, said seven gritters treated the city’s primary routes last night. An Early Morning Inspection (EMI) was also carried out at 4.30am today and the primary routes were re-treated. “This is still the normal routine at the moment,” he said.

First on Twitter / Facebook 31 Jan 2010 16:47 REMEMBER Followers of FirstBus_Devon as of 23:59 tonight go into draw to win a months free bustravel. Tell your friends http://bit.ly/aW6PFA 01 Feb 2010 Following diversions are in place due to ice in and around Plymouth: Service 1 Not servicing St Stephens. After Fore St operating up Callington Road, turning into Church Road and operating back to Fore St via Long Park Rd Service 1A Not servicing Yellowtor Rd Service 2 Not servicing Pomphlett Close and Forresters Road. Using Pomphlett Road and Dean Cross Road in both directions Service 3 Not servicing Barne Barton Following diversions are in place due to ice in and around Plymouth: Service 4 Not servicing Admiralty Street and Royal Navy Ave. After HMS Drake transitting Saltash Road, Wolseley Road to Henderson Place. Service 6 Not servicing Oreston. Diverting via Pomphlett Road and Dean Cross Road both directions. Service 7 Not servicing Woolwell. Turning around at Tesco roundabout. Following diversions are in place due to ice in and around Plymouth: Service 11 Not servicing St Pancras Ave or Honicknowle Green Service 15 Not servicing Asda or Mainstone. Icing on Miller Way buses terminating at Derriford Hospital Hopefully situation should improve as the sun intensifies. We are sorry for any inconvenience 10:34 NORTH DEVON: Delays expected on service X9 due to an accident at Okehampton (icy conditions) Will update ASAP Citybus on Twitter / Facebook 31 Jan 2010 21:13 Icy roads are disrupting services already this evening. Austin Crescent and Keswick Crescent are off limits. Expect problems on Monday morning if no gritting is done which seems unlikely based on past experience. Updates will be posted tomorrow morning once we have an idea of any problem areas 1 Feb 2010 07:01Most minor and some main roads in Plymouth are very icy. Buses are operating on the main roads only in many areas of the City. St Peter's Road is definately out as is Merafield. Yellowtor Road and Pilmere are out with the service 26 turning at the Ploughboy Inn. More details as they come in 07:26 Kings Tamerton, Bircham View and Austin Crescent are out. No sign of gritters and no one answering phones at Highways 08:47 Barne Barton is the latest area to add to the list of places we cannot serve. Problems now on the Barbican, Ringmore Way, Honicknowle Green, and we have a bus stuck in Oreston. Please take care out there. Cattedown, St Pancras Avenue, and ASDA are all now out of bounds to buses. 09:37 Due to a Police road closure in the Efford area the services 46 and 47 are now unable to serve Lower Compton or Efford Crematorium. Buses have been diverted via Eggbuckland Road and Henders Corner 10:07 Efford Road now repoened. services 46 and 47 back to normal route. Still slippery in the area so expect some delays 10:54 Kings Tamerton now open service 16 back to normal. St Peter's Road is also open again to buses 11:37 Now back in ASDA, Pilmere (but not Yellowtor), and Austin Crescent - still checking other roads 12:13 Oreston now open. The only places currently not seeing buses are - Barne Barton, and Yellowtor Road. Inspections still ongoing in these areas. All services as normal bar these 12:36 Yellowtor Road is now ice free and so at last we can now say that all routes are open to us and everything is running as it should be. Thank you all for your patience today.