johan rebel

Johan

pepe C

How many trains are there per hour in Finland?

Romanianflyer

Helsinki commuter trains at least as many. I can't see the difference in passing trains at AMS Bijlmer or HEL Pasila. The no of commiter trains seems actually higher here.

Romanianflyer

To put it into perspective (and to give Russians, Canadians, Nordic peoples, Swiss etc the opportunity for a good laugh) this picture was selected at Dutch daily 'Algemeen Dagblad' for the article which tells about the "code yellow" weather alarm for tomorrow.



Sums up the entire Dutch panic mode for a bit of frost (that, and the wild speculation we will again see an 'Elfstedentocht' after the first of frost )

pepe C

Yes hilarious that countries with a land or polar climate are more prepared for Winter conditions. The last real Winter we had in the Netherlands was in 2011.

Concerto

I don't know, but when I arrived the delays for flights due to depart imminently were quite shocking and filled me with foreboding. In the end, it really went like clockwork for me and I arrived in Geneva early, able to take an earlier train. It too ran like clockwork (which is not always the case these days with the Swiss railways SBB).

Fabo.sk

Indeed. I have to be in the office at 9 tomorrow and it seems I'll have to leave before 7 by the looks of it. Whatever, I can deal with that. What worries me more is whether I should pack a change of clothes in anticipation of spending the night at the office/in a hotel nearby. Normally I'd call it quits and work from home, but I've got a damn meeting in the morning that can't be rescheduled (let's hope the important people will arrive at least).

I don't think Bijlmer is a good benchmark station. It's quite outlying at the end of the day.

Either way, there are many reasons why it could be a problem, either the NS just not being able to justify the cost of mechanisms for winter maintenance that is given no second thought in Helsinki, or even basic technology itself.
I know there are common issues in winter in Czech Republic for example, where one of the overhead systems is well suited for winter and another isn't. Then you have trains running happily on one part of the network, and cancelled due to freezing of lines on another scarcely a couple miles away. As I understand it, one of the systems (AC 1.5kV?) is sort of "self-defrosting", while the other (DC 28kV?) is not, leading soon to loss of contact between the overhead line and the pantograph in the right conditions.

johan rebel

May have been due to AMS' de-icing operation, which is world-famous for its efficiency.

Right now conditions at AMS are fine: -1.8°C, partly cloudy, visibility 14.2 km (great by Dutch standards), light southerly breeze. Three runways in operation, nine delayed departing flights so far.

We'll see how it goes!

Johan

johan rebel

Same goes for Sweden. Even on a perfect day they struggle to keep trains running on schedule. When it comes to dealing with inclement weather they have been on a downhill slope for decades. For a host of reasons, all of which can be dealt with if the political will and money are there.

Johan

malmostoso

It has started to snow around 10AM. Good luck everyone

johan rebel

Yep, started in IJmuiden just after 10 a.m., only lightly though. At the moment you need to look really hard to spot the odd snowflake fluttering around.

To describe the accummulation so far as just a light dusting would be an exaggeration.

Light snow now at AMS, current delay status "very low and decreasing"

Johan

Fabo.sk

At Bijlmer still snowing, but very lightly.

Romanianflyer

Quite a bit of snow at CDG and low visibility. I just landed on time - but already on one of the access roads I saw two lorries having had an accident/slipped off the road.

Fabo.sk

Snowpocalypse is in full swing in Holland right now. A couple minutes ago, the NS website outright refused to give me any plan, just an error message.

I'm seriously considering just packing up and going home while I still can.

BobTL