Transportinfo.org.uk - today's transport news in the uk, hand picked for you each morning

Sunday, 29 March 2015

BBC News

• Alps crash family thanks club's fansThe family of a British man killed in the Alps aeroplane crash has thank fans of the football club he followed for their support.
• Weekend disruption on train linesA restricted timetable is in place at the weekend on the Cardiff and valleys network.
• Row over bus interchange for cityA row breaks out over a bid to create a bus interchange on a closed recycling site, seven years after it had a £1m revamp.
• Briton's father in plea to airlinesThe father of a British man killed in the Alps air crash urges airlines to look after pilots
• Jobseekers perks in Scotrail dealThe new ScotRail franchise will offer free rail travel to interviews for jobseekers, amongst other passenger benefits announced.
• Rugby youth team in bus crashNine children and a coach from Carrickfergus Rugby Club who were taken to hospital after a bus crash in County Donegal are discharged.
• Station house reopens after makeoverA railway station house, once seen as an

The Guardian

• After tragedies, how can an anxious flyer find the courage to set foot on a plane?As one traveler opts for the drug lorazepam and a shot of whiskey, some experts in the phobia-fighting business suggest other ways to deal with the fear The dull roar of the airplane was rapidly becoming the only noise I could hear as we bumped up and down and rocked side to side, 32,000 feet in the air above the Caribbean Sea. I could feel tears in my eyes, but I was concerned that if I took my lorazepam then – my first time ever using the anti-anxiety medication – I would have an allergic reaction and nowhere to go because I was hurtling at 550mph in a metal death trap.Virginia, the stranger...

The Herald

• Chilling prediction of Germanwings crash pilot Andreas Lubitz: 'everyone will know my name'THE co-pilot believed to have deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane into the French Alps chillingly told an ex-girlfriend that

The Independent

• Airport expansion: Choose Heathrow or Gatwick soon, MPs urge Government Nearly 60 MPs, including the chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, have demanded a quickfire decision from the next government on expanding Heathrow or Gatwick airports.

The Observer

• The mystery of flight 9525: a locked door, a silent pilot and a secret history of illnessWhen the Germanwings Airbus disappeared, Europe was united in grief. Then, as the troubling facts behind the crash emerged, the shock and incredulity grewJamie DowardKim WillsherLuke Harding

The Scotsman

• ScotRail gives jobseekers free travel to interviewsJOBSEEKERS will get free rail travel to interviews then a month’s free travel when they land a job under the new ScotRail franchise.

The Telegraph

• Can we make grim British service stations like chic French ones?The UK has a long way to go before motorway stops are visited for pleasure, says Andrew M Brown

Times Online

• Killer pilot’s vision problemsTHE German co-pilot who flew 149 people to their deaths in the Alps was suffering from a “severe psychosomatic” mental illness and was seeking treatment for career-threatening problems with his vision.

City AM

• How drones could stop crashes like Germanwings happening againDrones could provide the solution to preventing future disasters similar to the Germanwings Airbus crash that took place in the Alps earlier this week. Aviation experts told Sky that having a drone system on planes would allow staff on the ground to seize control of aircraft in an emergency, so the pilots would no longer have total power. Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot on flight 4U9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, is thought to have deliberately caused the plane to crash by putting it into descent. Systems already exist which allow unmanned planes to be operated from the ground, ...
• Ruling could spell end for Uber as we know itAn application by Transport for London (TfL) to the High Court could put the brakes on Uber services in London, and it all comes down to taximeters.These are the small boxes with which taxi drivers calculate the fare over the course of a journey, and the law states that in London they can only be used by licensed taxis, such as black cabs.  But the Uber app falls into a grey area, since it measures fares according to smart phone GPS estimates of a journey's distance and time. If the High Court decides it does count as a taximeter when the hearing takes place this summer, it will ...

Daily Express

• EXCLUSIVE: Twisted obsessions of killer in cockpit: Lubitz trawled 'dark side' of the webKILLER co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was trawling suicide and gay websites as he spiralled into mental illness.
• EXCLUSIVE: Rip-off Easter rail to take FIVE times longer but passengers will pay the priceTHOUSANDS of passengers on Britain’s busiest rail route face a rip-off at Easter with long delays from engineering works as the price of tickets rocket.

Mail Online

• Teenage girl rushed for HIV and hepatitis tests after she sat on a NEEDLE on a bus Francesca Palmer-Norris (pictured), 16, was on the top deck of the number 24 Brighton and Hove Bus Company vehicle when she was pricked by the needle.
• Skybrawl: British crew of new Bond film go on drunken riot on private plane... and trigger international air safety alert The film crew removed a safety pin from one of the aircraft's doors, vomited and urinated in the aisles and verbally abused cabin crew during the private flight from Stansted Airport to Mexico City.
• Spectator dies at Nurburgring after British racing driver Jann Mardenborough's car flips into air and crashes into crowd Driver Jann Mardenborough was cresting a hill when the car flipped upright, travelling 100ft before slamming into a barrier and flipping over a safety barrier into the crowd.
• 'Open the goddamn door!': Desperate final pleas of Germanwings captain emerge as black box transcript reveals Lubitz's repeated attempts to coax pilot into toilet According to transcripts in German newspaper Bild, captain Patrick Sondheimer screamed ‘Open the goddamn door!’ as his co-pilot (pictured) deliberately flew the aircraft into the Alps.

The Mirror

• Meet the cyclist bidding to ride 75,000 miles on his bike - in just ONE yearSteve Abrahams is covering 205 miles a day in his relentless world record pursuit

Derby Telegraph

• awalsh commented Derbyshire crash: Sleeping man hit by bricks and glass as car...A HOMEOWNER was woken as he was hit by glass and bricks in his bed after a car crashed into the front of his bungalow. Michael Mcelhatton, who had only moved into the Borrowash property yesterday, intially thought someone had thrown a brick through the window. But when he stepped out the front door, he found a silver saloon car had smashed through his garden wall and into the two vehicles parked in his drive. Bricks from the garden wall had flown through the front window of his bungalow, where...

Sheffield Telegraph

• Fares hike for South Yorkshire bus usersPrices on First buses across South Yorkshire are increasing from today.

Wales Online

• The Number 7 bus that served Welsh passengers, then got shipped to South Africa - and now it's come back home againIt's been touring the South African National Parks, but now a group of Welsh transport enthusiasts have paid £20,000 and brought it home

Blackpool Gazette

• Council moves in to allay fears over Airport auctionBlackpool Council has said the auction of Airport equipment by its owners will not affect it future or prevent further commercial flights from returning to Squires Gate.

Bucks Free Press

• Fears over new cycleway spark debate on road safety in Marlow Cyclists, pedestrians and motorists have spoken out in a debate over sharing Marlow’s roads after a report by the Marlow Free Press last week over safety fears on a new £300k cycleway.
• HS2: Select committee 'to visit Bucks in May' The committee of MPs hearing evidence on the proposed HS2 railway line are due to visit Buckinghamshire in May, according to an MP.

Doncaster Free Press

• Fares hike for South Yorkshire bus usersPrices on First buses across South Yorkshire are increasing from today.

Other Regional Press

• New Condor ferry damaged as it docks in Guernsey a day after maiden voyage JUST a day after its maiden voyage, Condor Liberation will not be sailing back to Poole on Saturday after the ship was damaged docking in Guernsey.
• Bus drivers plan to strike in row over pay OXFORD bus drivers are planning to go on strike for at least one day and possibly three.
• A420 to shut for repairs as embankment starts to slip CONCERNS have been raised about plans to temporarily divert traffic from the A420 Cumnor bypass through nearby villages during roadworks.