It’s still snowing in central Reading. Well, sort of. Either way, there’s enough of the stuff here already to make driving extremely tricky, cycling hazardous and walking fun in a you-could-be-about-to-fall-over-any-second kind of way.
A quick look round the middle of town suggests main roads are slippy and very quiet. We even saw a snowplough, a first for us in Reading. As you can see from our picture of South Street, side roads are completely covered in snow.
If you’ve not cottoned on already, it’s probably a bad idea to go anywhere at all by car unless you really really have to. And no, taking a trip to Tesco to panic buy does not constitute an essential journey.
For our money, walking is by far the best way to get around. As long as you have some stout shoes or wellies and don’t mind getting a bit damp, the pavements aren’t too bad – though they are likely to get worse as more people venture out and tread the snow down. At least there’s no traffic about, so you can cross the road with impunity for once.
Other websites are updated far more frequently than this one, so here’s our handy guide to getting the latest on the snow situation in Reading:
- If you’re planning to ignore advice and travel by car, try BBC travel, the Highways Agency and Reading Borough Council, who have some helpful live traffic cams. Don’t blame us when you get stuck.
- The Reading Buses website is being regularly updated with service information, though at the time of writing the news is simply that no buses are running.
- We hear the trains are holding up well, but keep an eye on First Great Western, Cross Country and National Rail to see for yourself. The National Rail site is running awfully slow though.
- Loads of schools are closed. If you have kids, you probably know the score already, but if not, there’s a list on the Reading 107 website.
- BBC Berkshire, getreading, the Reading Chronicle and Heart are all likely to have updates throughout the day.
- Finally, don’t forget Twitter. For first-hand experience and updates, you can’t beat it. Seriously. Follow the #rdg hashtag and perhaps you’ll see what we mean.