Author: Sal
Snow Alert: Island Travel Information: Thursday 7th (Update 14)
Thursday, 7th January, 2010 at 12:21 am, Isle of Wight
Last updated: 6.20pm
This page will be updated throughout the day with the latest travel information.
Jump to information about bus, train, cross-Solent service as well as the roads.
Road Closures
10:16 – Big Update
Mersley Down Road Closed due to dangerous conditions – Road will be ploughed this evening but will be closed for rest of day
Brading Down Road Closed due to Dangerous conditions
Castle Road, Carisbrooke Closed due to being blocked by abandoned vehicles
Calbourne Road from Calbourne to Betty Haunt Lane junction Closed due to Fallen trees
Ashey Road from Smallbrook Junction to Hare and Hounds Closed due to Dangerous conditions
West Street, Godshill Closed due to Dangerous conditions Reopened (11.39am)
High Street, Ventnor Impassable due to snow/ice
Church Street, Ventnor Impassable due to snow/ice
Cowleaze Hill, Shanklin Now passable but only with 4×4 due to snow/ice
Afton Road, Freshwater between School Green Road and the Military Road is closed due to ice
Coach Lane, Brading to Ashey Road is closed due to ice
Green Lane, Brading to Ashey Road is closed due to ice
West Lane, Brading to Ashey Road is closed due to ice
Freshwater Road, East of Tapnell Farm impassable, due to ice
Bus Services
School Services
* No school services will operate on Thursday 7 January 2010.
Southern Vectis Bus Services
Route 1
Newport Bus Station to Cowes Park Gates (Not Red Jet or Co-op)
Only operating via Round House to Cowes and via Park and Ride to Newport due to road conditions. Please join the bus in its direction of travel and travel ’round’ or change at Northwood Horseshoe Inn
Not operating to any formal timetable at this stage
Route 2
Running a limited service on Route 2 from Newport and Ryde
Route 4
Operating the normal route
Not operating to any formal timetable at this stage
Route 5
Operating the normal route
Not operating to any formal timetable at this stage
Route 7
Limited service from Newport
Route 9
Operating via Fairlee Only (Not Staplers)
Not operating to any formal timetable at this stage
Update: 6.20pm Thursday
Southern Vectis inform us that some roads have iced up in the last few hours and so they are now only running the following routes:
Route 1
Newport Bus Station to Northwood Only
Route 5
Newport Bus Station to East Cowes but via York Avenue (not Adelaide Grove or Victoria Grove)
Route 9
Newport Bus Station to Ryde Town Only (Parish Church) and via Fairlee Only (Not Staplers)
**All other routes suspended**
Cross-Solent Travel
Red Funnel Car Ferry, WightLink and Hovertravel all report to be running as normal.
Red Jet is running an hourly service as follows:
Sailing from Southampton XX45
Sailing from West Cowes XX15
Due to the current weather conditions we are now running a one jet service for the rest of today (7th January 2010). Please see revised schedule below.
Southampton
14:45, 15:45, 16:45, 17:45, 18:45, 19:45 and then resumes normal timetable:
20:45, 21:45, 22:45 & 2345
West Cowes
14:15, 15:15, 16:15, 17:15, 18:15, 19:15 and then resumes normal timetable:
20:15, 21:15, 22:15, 23:15 & 0015
Island Line train
A far as we know, there’s a reduced service operating on Island Line train, at the following times
* 45 minutes past each hour from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin
* 15 minutes past each hour from Shanklin to Ryde Pier Head
Island Line are hoping to be able return to a normal service later today – we’ll update you as soon as we know more.
Related posts:
- Snow Alert: Island Travel Information: Friday 8th (Update 14)
Current travel position.... - Snow Alert: Island Travel Information (Wednesday 6th) (Update 15)
Transport is looking well crook (as they might say in... - Snow Alert: Travel Information Wednesday 13th (update 2)
We'll update this page to let you know about travelling... - Snow Alert: Travel Information Tuesday 12th (Update 1)
We'll update this page to let you know about travelling... - Snow Alert: Travel Information Monday 11th (Update 6)
Monday travel news across the Island as it unravels....
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Thanks VB for the updates. Been listening to IWRadio and they keep screwing up and think we don’t notice. No matter, I don’t need to listen to them anymore, you’ve proved you’ve got the latest accurate news.
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Everyone’s doing what they can I’m sure. Pretty unusual circumstances.
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The rolling updates on IW Radio during the day seem very good to me. They’re clearly working hard. All credit to VB, too, for providing such sterling service.
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Southern Vectis are also tweeting whenever they have updates to the bus situation:- http://twitter.com/SouthernVectis
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VB – Thanks for this very useful info and yes, I picked it up on my mobile before I got out of bed this morning (too much information?)
I wonder if the bus companies might finally break with the great British tradition of when in doubt, do nothing and instead use the effective, quick and cheap expedient of applying snow chains to their vehicles. It works rather well for the rest of Europe and America, even in the mountainous areas.
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I have spoken with the highways snow clearance people and they have this to say;-
Snow clearance in the main town centre area of Ventnor will take place in the next 24 hours. Clearance schedule is dependant on whether it is liable to thaw and then freeze again (which it is). If so, they will wait until tomorrow to salt and plow.
There is a limited salt resource currently available in the UK so they are rationing the use of their salt reserve.
If you too think this is not good enough, you may complain using the form at http://www.iwight.com/council/publicServices/councilComplaints.aspx. I would encourage you to do so.
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Thanks for the update Christopher.
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Having got out of Ventnor this morning by taking the coast road to Niton (Police advice was that other routes were impassable, they didn’t know about that one) I was most surprised to see that the road was gritted from St Lawrence onwards, but no sign of anything in the Ventnor direction.
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“limited salt resource”? Last time I checked the earth was 2/3rds salt water, here in the british isles and more specifically the island we’re surrounded by the stuff; how wonderfully ironic!
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Victoria Avenue has not been gritted/salted this week at all…and the only gritters I have seen have been the old fashioned ones
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council press release – LARGE STOCKPILES OF SALT TO ENSURE ROADS ARE GRITTED OVER WINTER
http://www.iwight.com/home/pressreleases/frmView.aspx?prid=936
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Would it make you feel any better if I tell you that I made this point. As an aside, I checked the price orf gritting salt on the internet and it is currently selling in bulk at £1 per kilo.
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It would be handy to show the state of the roads on a map of the island – I guess the problem is the info is constantly changing.
Round my way (near Brighstone), the country lanes are not gritted, and tyre tracks left yesterday are now sheet ice. I wouldn’t venture out by car, but this is where those with 4×4s can feel a bit smug. My neighbour kindly brought me back some milk and reported that the main road through Brighstone is passable if you don’t drive like an idiot.
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I havent seen a single gritter or snowplogh and today (Thursday) I’ve been from one end of the island to the other – and back.
The West Wight roads, middle and Yarmouth are barely passable with a 4×4. The council haven’t been near them since Tuesday. Great service, not!
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Having driven from Ventnor to London today I have to say I was pretty shocked by the poor gritting/clearing of the island’s roads.
To be told by a Police Officer at 10.30am (when the last snow was the previous afternoon) that as far as he was aware there was no way out of Ventnor other than in a 4×4 was a surprise and to see no sign of any attempt to keep roads through Ventnor clear (it is after all, in island terms, a significant settlement).
I did get out via Niton, Whitwell and Godshill which was not too bad if you took it slowly. Even Fairlee roundabout in Newport still had a fair covering of snow/ice on the roadway and I was shocked at the number of abandoned cars still at the side of the road from Newport to East Cowes.
The Red Funnel car park/loading area was an ice sheet with cars getting stuck and having to be pushed out of it by staff so they could get on the ferry (why had that not been treated?). Got off the ferry in Southampton and everything was fine.
Maybe I’m spoilt by mainland road treatment but there my experience is that all but very minor roads are clear within hours of snow stopping.
A very poor response.
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My father in law drove back from London on the M£ last night..took him 20 inutes longer than usual because a lane was closed otherwise the lack of traffic was great. Took him the same time to get from Cowes to Shanklin.
Somebody has to be taken to task over the state of the roads during, what was after all a well known in advance, event.
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It’s shocking. Who is the person responsible for this lack of gritting?
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The highways clearance people phoned me back to tell me that they had sent out a manual gritting team to Ventnor at lunch time. Meanwhile I hear that the grittilng lorry jack-knifed at the top of Ventnor somewhere. Has nobody at the council heard of snow chains?
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Set off to work yesterday (Wed) no snow/ice in Ventnor Town @ 0530hrs but met a parked snow plough/gritter on Ocean View Rd with no obvious snow/ice. Thought “good they’ve been out” so I went on the main roads rather than my usual route over Bleak Down. Conditions deteriorated. No treatment – nothing! Took me over an hour to get to St Mary’s where I work and 15 mins to drive into parking by my place of work. Sent home mid morning because of impending blizzard. Journey back to Ventnor probably more hazardous than going in…compacted snow and no signs at all of clearance. Couldn’t get out to work today and probably not tomorrow because NOTHING has happened to rectify road conditions. Feel really bad about letting colleagues and clients down. Is this the way to run a community?
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