The Commons transport committee has called for winter service plans to be overhauled after a ‘widespread failure to prioritise the restoration of transport services’ during early February’s heavy snowfall.
MPs want local authorities and transport operators to meet ‘to discuss what action is necessary to help minimise disruption to public transport services in the event of snowfall’. They were unimpressed by the Local Government Association’s claim that this would be ‘difficult’.
The call came after public transport services were halted across London and in Southeast counties such as Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, after snowfall of more than 20cm in some areas.
The committee, hoping to influence the review ordered by transport secretary, Geoff Hoon, into the winter service difficulties of February, urged that public transport routes, including bus garages and depots, be given priority for salt-spreading within winter maintenance plans.
Its report declared that resources were not the answer, but ‘co-ordination, prioritisation and visible leadership are vital to the success and speed of recovery following severe weather’.
The committee also recommended that Transport for London and bus operators should identify routes on which ‘at least some services’ would be maintained when there was heavy snowfall in future, brushing aside the objections of Peter Hendy, the transport commissioner.
Hendy had argued that most services used a mixture of strategic and non-strategic roads, and ‘have to turn around on back streets’, but the MPs highlighted that some services were restored by midday on 2 February.
However, Matthew Lugg, who is leading the Roads Liaison Group’s review, said that while the ‘operational policies and practice of local highway authorities,’ would be covered, ‘the biggest issue was the supply of salt, not where it was used’. The code of practice ‘already states that transport routes and interchanges should be treated, and high-frequency bus routes are treated,’ he said, although the code might need to be re-visited regarding treatment of access routes for bus depots.
The RLG review, due to report by July, would consider ‘the critical issue’ of the security of the salt supply chain, Lugg added.
‘Winter service operations have been cut back, following a number of years of milder winters, but just-in-time deliveries don’t work,’ he said.
‘There is a cost associated with stockpiling salt, but given the benefits of preventing the transport system shutting down, it could be a price worth paying.’
• The effects of adverse weather conditions on transport.
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