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Friday, March 29, 2024

TfL prepares to ‘keep London moving’ in the cold

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The Mayor, Transport for London (TfL), and the boroughs are working together to ensure London keeps moving.

More than 100,000 tonnes of salt, including a 27,000 tonne strategic reserve, are in place across the Capital.

The Mayor of London, TfL and London Councils – the body representing all 32 of London’s boroughs and the City of London – have set out the measures underway to keep London moving during any coming bad weather.

The organisations have co-ordinated plans, developed alongside the local borough councils, the emergency services and Network Rail, designed to ensure the transport network and a network of key routes remain open throughout even the most severe weather.

This includes roads and footways around bus garages and stations, hospitals with accident and emergency departments, railway stations and police, fire and ambulance stations across London.

TfL, which is responsible for the 580km network of London’s red routes, has already stockpiled more than 22,000 tonnes of salt within its London depots

Last year TfL also created a 27,000 tonne pan-London Strategic Salt Reserve, which remains fully stocked and untouched.

This is ready for deployment and capable of supplementing stocks held by the boroughs.

The amount of salt stored by London’s local authorities has been boosted, taking London’s total stock to more than 100,000 tonnes.

Across London, a fleet of 40 gritters, all of which can be fitted with ploughs, as well as gritting quad bikes, flat bed trucks and teams of gritlayers will operate across TfL’s major road network.

A list of core bus routes, bus garage locations and bus stands has been agreed by TfL and the London boroughs to ensure that bus services can be maintained.

London Underground and London Rail both have winter weather plans in place, with engineers ready to be mobilised to any vulnerable sites to ensure that points – a crucial part of the railway where signalling systems move sections of track to direct the trains – do not become frozen.

Points heaters are in place at key sections of the network and London Underground is making increased use of remote monitoring technology to spot any potential problems more quickly.

If necessary, trains will operate throughout the night to keep lines clear and de-ice rails, and teams are on standby to clear areas of track and platforms as necessary.

The Tube fared well during last year’s winter weather, with the vast majority of services operating as normal.

However, some outlying areas – particularly in the outer suburbs served by the Metropolitan, Piccadilly, District and Central lines – are more vulnerable to extreme weather.

Therefore additional measures have been taken this year, as part of a vast range of initiatives included in the London Underground Reliability Improvement Programme.

These include:

  • An ‘ice mode’ to be used on the new Metropolitan line ‘S’ stock trains, which helps prevents them from getting stuck
  • Extra stocks of essential components being strategically located across the network to allow the quickest response to any weather-related issues
  • New measures to prevent compressed air systems on the Central line fleet from freezing, so preventing the brake and door systems on the trains from becoming defective
  • An overhauled ‘wheel slip protection’ system on the Central line, in order to prevent wheels locking and causing damage to wheels during harsh weather.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said:

“Across the length and breadth of London’s roads and rails and Tube, hundreds of workers will be toiling across the winter, ensuring that commuters can commute, shoppers can shop and tourists can continue to tour our great city.

“With more than 100,000 tonnes of salt across the Capital and an army of gritters, de-icers and specially adapted Tube carriages, together we will ensure that coordinated and swift action is taken to keep the Capital moving.”

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