[cotoole]

Wow, the heat in Europe must be unbearable. It appears the Eurostar service had to be shut down because trains were failing due to the massive amounts of snow being packed into the power car.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091220/D9CN94680.html

Good thing the U.N. just spent a fortune, and emitted a carbon footprint to match a small African nation to gather and put an end to this incredible warm spell.

Meanwhile, the eastern seaboard of the United States just underwent a record setting December snow fall.

If the Earth's temperature climbs any higher, I think we will all freeze to death.

Chris

[wakeyboy]

Snow is weather.

Heat waves and floods are climate change.

Its science fact dont ya know? and by science fact we mean doctored and manipulated data dont ya know?


I think the shutting down of Eurostar had more to do with the incompetency of both the British and French operators, and poor investment in infrastructure than it had to do with climate change / global warming or whatever else its fashionable to call it.

[mr dragon]

I don't think it had anything to do with 'global warming' . They obviously didn't plan the service to be running those high speed trains with the level of snow we've been getting over here in the last few days- which came from across Europe. Something like this seems to happen every year with the snow to at least one of any of the train services in the UK- though I haven't seen it happen like this on Eurostar yet. This is a first.

Tell you what though. This was a MASSIVE public relations disaster for Eurostar. They should be prepared for this kind of thing. A lot of passengers were really pissed off. I got caught once on an evening Eurostar to Paris train a few years ago where there were some delays out of the tunnel at the other end. We had to wait at least couple of hours while the train didn't move- which meant I didn't get to my hotel until after about 11 pm. Very annoying. They'd also run out of food from the buffet coach, though some of the stewards mixed us up some of their own coffee to keep us happy. Three of us passengers finally went and had a sneaky smoke in one of the 'in between' carriage connecting areas (the doors were closed either side). They didn't say anything to us though- I think they could see we were all pissed off. One of the 'smoker's' was an American businessman who lived in Paris, we had quite an interesting chat.

[wakeyboy]

You expect services to have contingancy plans! its shocking and damaging to Eurostar's reputation.

[cotoole]

I'm happy to report my one trip on the Eurostar went much more smoothly. Although I have to say, I was shocked to arrive in Paris around midnight to find most of the stations lights out, and the place looking deserted. I'd expected an open station for a train inbound from one capital to another. The ride was a bit slow through Great Britain, however, once we got in the Chunnel, we picked up a bit of speed. The ride through the French countryside at 300 Kilometers an hour was fun, my fastest land speed.

However, as was obvious, I was being sarcastic, as I do not buy into the whole global warming thing. Or global climate change, as they call it now to account for the extreme cold. It's nice that they can predict gloom and doom because of extreme heat when temps climb, and blame man, and then, magically, when temps drop, claim it's the same activity by man causing it, and the idiots that believed in Global Warming still buy into the Global Climate Change.

The sad thing is watching how they behaved at Copenhagen. Rioting in the streets, trying to silence people with differing opinions, including throwing things at them. Nothing like freedom of speech, and the true scientific approach.

The thing the media here in the U.S. has thus far ignored, this year we have had protests by Conservative groups, mostly the Tea Parties, but, also in Town Hall Meetings, and the only reported violence came at two seperate events when liberals attacked and injured a conservative. Actually, one report got covered, initially. It was initially reported that a person had his or her finger bitten off by an anti-health care protester. It was later changed to a report the anti-health care protester was the victim, which led to silence in the reporting. Of course, the other was when a couple union thugs from SEIU attacked and brutally beat a man selling "Don't Tread on Me" flags. They were recorded on video beating him, and calling him the "N" word. The response? After months of attention form Right Wing blogs and Fox News, the thugs were charged with a misdemeanor. The case is still pending. This after the Obama administration toughened hate crime laws. Oddly, the Justice Department is ignoring the SEIU attack, probably because SEIU and Andy Stern are Obama's closest friends.

But, Nancy Pelosi came close to tears trying to compare the Town Hall Meeting protests and Tea Party protests to the protests in the late 60's and early 70's. The big difference? Those violent protests were liberals.

Chris

[SilverMiniCooperS]

From what I understand the Eurostar got stuck IN the Chunnel. Was the snow blowing that hard it blew into and filled up the tunnel???

[mr dragon]

It wasn't just one stuck Eurostar choo choo in the chunnel Jenn, it was five of 'em! Apparently it had something to do with condensation on some of the electrical systems because the 'snow shields' used to protect those electrics hadn't been 'adequate' enough for this level of weather...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8425828.stm

To be fair to Eurostar, while I did have a delay when I last used it and this recent thing does look really bad, I also know people who've used it very regularly for years and think it's great. You can just get unlucky I guess. The one thing I don't understand though, is why in Hell did they not at least bring supplies to the stuck trains inside the chunnel, or have some kind of procedure to deal with the situation. If some of these people were stuck in there for up to eighteen hours the obvious thing would have been to truck some supplies down the tunnel to where they were, and maybe some other extra things on top to keep the passengers happy- courtesy of the company. Or find a way of 'evacuating' the passengers (it's not like the chunnel isn't multiply accessible by different means- there's a fucking major road in there for cross channel vehicles!). I mean, that's the least they could have done....

I'm sure this has been a little bit over dramatised by the writer- but still! This is what happened according to the Times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 963452.ece

Numpties.

[cotoole]

Dragon, I have seen such buffoonery here as well with airlines, it is on it's face totally unacceptable, and yet, something we face all the time as travelling consumers. The unusual blizzard we had here on the east coast led to people being stranded on planes as well. One jet was stuck on a runway in Baltimore, and had to be towed loose, eventually, only to get stuck again, and wait to be towed in. The jet was pushed back from the gate at 8:35 AM, and finally reached the gate to unload back into BWI at 2:55 PM. And, while on it's face it looked like a 3 Stooges episode, it really wasn't anything that could be blamed on the airline or airport. The global warming has been unusually deep here in the states this year. This was the second measurable snow in my area, which is very unusual this early in the year.

I completely understand the trains breaking down, obviously business and government are concentrating on opening the vents on the power cars to allow them to breathe better in the climbing heat they are telling us we are facing. Faced with the reality that the winter is unusually colder, as some of us predicted (That would be us flat earthers, the deniers who are little better than holocaust deniers, those who noticed the Earth actually heats and cools in cycles, roughly 30 years long, and, the last one came to end very recently. Can I say I told you so, yet?)

However, I question how the hell you pile more trains in the chunnel after the first couple broke down.

I also hold Eurostar responsible for not having contingency plans in place. As to the French authourities, well, I made a promise to Adrien years ago which keeps me saying what I think of them.

Chris

[cotoole]

http://wcbstv.com/local/train.ride.from.2.1385442.html

The Long Island Railroad had a similar breakdown, only one train, and only 6 hours, but, like the Eurostar, they failed to keep the passengers informed. Some, being idiots, broke out the windows to try to escape, making things worse in the already cold train as they awaited rescue.

Chris