Weather Disrupts Bus Services

[DublinTexas]

Seriously, our government tells us that we all should prepare for the weather changes due to the “global warming” and our own government can’t even get public transportation up and running in the capital because of some minor snow.
Weather in Dublin, Temperatures below 0 C everywhere, some icy conditions and some snow, no public transport.

Weather in Stockholm, temperatures around -7 degrees with light snow shower, public transport working fine.

Weather in Munich, temperatures around -5 degrees with heavy snow, and you guessed it, public transport working fine.

If the roads are so bad, why not put some of the resources our government has onto the street to clean them up and make them safe?

How can we be so unprepared for a weather change that our government warns us for years now, unless some dimwits in the government thought that “global warming” means it gets warmer only?

We were always a banana republic but seriously, we are getting more and more like a 3rd world country every day.

 

[RonanC]

+1 Your totally right.

I couldnt believe that a major road close to where I live was like a skating rink at 3:00 in the afternoon! The Councils are blaming a lack of funds for the lack of gritting on our roads.

So the question is, what exactly are we paying road tax for?

 

[micmclo]

You pay zero in road tax, same as everyone, hurray

Any tax you do pay isn't ringfenced to the roads, it goes to general funding and can be spent anywhere
And it seems the councils have very little left, many council are millions in debt

 

[DublinTexas]

Isn’t it wonderful, the road tax goes to the general budget despite its name, just like the 10€ we have to pay for the pleasure of leaving the country goes into the same pod.

Councils could stop wasting millions very easy but no, instead they continue to disappoint the people living in their areas by not being able to provide basic services. Instead they waste money for example to ensure not private competition can collect glass waste from home.

Well today Dublin Bus seems to be able to provide some services, even if it’s limited in some area due to conditions in housing estates and high level areas. However their definition of high level is seriously funny.

In any case, our government better starts investing in some snow plows, street gritting equipment and a plan to deal with this kind of weather because according to their own propaganda about “global warming” this weather will become a regular feature and I seriously don’t think that people are going to be happy if we have to shut down the country regular because of conditions other countries might call a light snow fall.

 

[Complainer]

Isn’t it wonderful, the road tax goes to the general budget despite its name

There is no 'road tax' in Ireland. I guess you are thinking about http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovernment/MotorTax/ (motor tax). The vast majority of taxes are not ring-fences, i.e. the Govt spends where it thinks fit, which seems fairly sensible to me in principle.

I guess that a bit part of the problem for Dublin Bus is that a lot of their routes go through/along housing estates which would not normally be gritted by the council.

There are some practical questions to consider here. We rarely get this kind of extreme weather, so there is a real question about how much we should invest in preparing for this kind of weather. Do we really want to spent a huge amount of money to prepare for these unusual events? In Stockholm, it would obviously make sense to be fully prepared for these conditions, but we are not Stockholm.

 

[RonanC]

from the Citizens Advice website

The revenue from this tax is used to maintain and upgrade the road network in Ireland.

So should we equally fail to prepare for flooding like we do for cold weather? I am fed up as a taxpayer paying for services that are not provided.

 

[Galwaygirl]

So should we equally fail to prepare for flooding like we do for cold weather? I am fed up as a taxpayer paying for services that are not provided

I didn't see much evidence of being prepared for floods in North Galway, our regional road was closed for over 2 weeks and many national roads around Galway were impassable for a week or so.

My own local road is constantly a mesh of potholes which are repaired by dumping a mix of gravel and tar into them which lasts until the next lot of bad rain. During 2009 they were 'repaired' 4 times and only when the craters were almost 2 ft wide and 6 inches deep!

absoultely agree about being fed up paying for non services!

 

[RonanC]

Galwaygirl, thats what I mean, we fail to prepare as a nation for floods but with the recent devastation seen in Cork and Galway and other counties, flood prevention will be at the top of the list for a lot of politicians. Preparing for poor weather in general should be at the top of everyones lists.

There was a couple of cm's of snow in Dublin but for some reason there was no gritting and public transport came to a complete standstill.

 

[Teatime]

There are some practical questions to consider here. We rarely get this kind of extreme weather, so there is a real question about how much we should invest in preparing for this kind of weather. Do we really want to spent a huge amount of money to prepare for these unusual events? In Stockholm, it would obviously make sense to be fully prepared for these conditions, but we are not Stockholm.

+1

I think the councils (Galway/Clare/Limerick at least) have done alright in keeping the main roads ice-free. Some of the conditions this Xmas were extraordinary with rain turning to sheet ice on impact with roads, even gritted roads. I've had a few slow trips on dodgy roads but it was ok. To be honest I would rather 3/4 weeks of this weather every year than 3/4 weeks of cold wet weather. I think if councils were overspending on gritters and grit, people would be complaining about that.

 

[Firefly]

I couldnt believe that a major road close to where I live was like a skating rink at 3:00 in the afternoon! The Councils are blaming a lack of funds for the lack of gritting on our roads.

The guys working in the council are paid from 9-5, so any gritting should be done during this time. The only variable cost then should be grit and petrol/diesel. Surely we can afford this?

 

[Complainer]

The guys working in the council are paid from 9-5

Unless of course, those guys have left the council and haven't been replaced due to the embargo;

see [broken link removed]

 

[Caveat]

I've no complaints re gritting/road conditions etc near me - living in a rural area the potential is probably worse for untreated roads but no real problems. Maybe we've been a bit lucky.

Public transport almost completely unaffected - but mainly because we virtually don't have any.

 

[JP1234]

We set off from Derry yesterday at 9am and managed to drive to Wexford without encountering any real ice or snow, the only time we did was when we stopped off in Liffey Valley. Even when we hit Wexford Town there was no evidence of disruption that we had heard so much about. We left Derry so early as we had expected the journey to take all day given the reports on Met.ie and AA Roadwatch, as it was we were back in our house by 3pm!

 

[Firefly]

Unless of course, those guys have left the council and haven't been replaced due to the embargo;

see [broken link removed]

Maybe he should ask his buddy in Tipp North if they have some spare capacity

 

[liaconn]

The guys working in the council are paid from 9-5, so any gritting should be done during this time. The only variable cost then should be grit and petrol/diesel. Surely we can afford this?

If it snows during the night, there would be chaos if no gritting took place until 9am after everyone's already hit the roads to get to work/school. Gritting needs to take place in the early hours of the morning, where possible.

 

[gipimann]

If it snows during the night, there would be chaos if no gritting took place until 9am after everyone's already hit the roads to get to work/school. Gritting needs to take place in the early hours of the morning, where possible.

A relative of mine works for a local authority and has been called in most days to grit roads - the call to start can be anytime from 3am to 5am (7am if he's lucky!).

 

[Firefly]

If it snows during the night, there would be chaos if no gritting took place until 9am after everyone's already hit the roads to get to work/school. Gritting needs to take place in the early hours of the morning, where possible.

If the roads were gritted well during the day (based on accurate forecasts) would this not suffice?

 

[Complainer]

If the roads were gritted well during the day (based on accurate forecasts) would this not suffice?

Not if it snows again!

Here's the reality of a gritting operation;

[broken link removed]

 

[Latrade]

Not if it snows again!

Here's the reality of a gritting operation;

[broken link removed]

You're being unreasonable again.

It's unfair to introduce stuff like facts into a opportunity to bash the government, LAs and the PS. Sure, it's completely unprecidented, sure the forcasts couldn't and didn't foresee the extent and scale of the freezing, sure councils actually were out gritting it was just so cold that the gritting couldn't work, sure along with the UK and most of Europe there's huge demands on salt and as such everywhere is struggling for stock, I mean despite all that there were civil servants sat on their backsides doing nothing over Christmas living up that perk called "annual leave" and where were the TDs?

 

[Sunny]

You're being unreasonable again.

It's unfair to introduce stuff like facts into a opportunity to bash the government, LAs and the PS. Sure, it's completely unprecidented, sure the forcasts couldn't and didn't foresee the extent and scale of the freezing, sure councils actually were out gritting it was just so cold that the gritting couldn't work, sure along with the UK and most of Europe there's huge demands on salt and as such everywhere is struggling for stock, I mean despite all that there were civil servants sat on their backsides doing nothing over Christmas living up that perk called "annual leave" and where were the TDs?

Have I missed something? Where did anyone criticise public sector workers or accuse civil service workers of sitting on their backsides? Now you are the one starting the whole thing up again. It's like a version of Godwin's law at this stage