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

Tuesday, 04 August 2015

BBC News

• Queen to open new Borders railwayThe Queen is to officially open the new rail line between the Scottish Borders and Edinburgh next month.
• Plan to modernise Tube 'doubles'The cost of modernising signalling on four Tube lines more than doubles.
• Rail workers hold bank holiday strikeFirst Great Western rail workers are to stage strikes, including over the August Bank Holiday weekend, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union says.

Financial Times

• Tube workers to strike over night serviceWalkout set to start on Wednesday evening
• Tube upgrade to finish 4 years lateThales awarded £760m contract after Bombardier deal collapsed

The Herald

• Queen to open new Borders railwayTHE new Borders Railway will be officially opened by the Queen on the day she becomes Britain's longest serving monarch.

The Scotsman

• Queen to open Borders Railway in SeptemberTHE Borders Railway will be officially opened by the Queen on the day that she becomes Britain’s longest serving monarch.
• Kilmarnock-Dumfries rail line shut for two weeksA RAIL line will remain closed for two weeks while engineers remove 18 derailed freight wagons after a crash between two trains.

The Telegraph

• First Great Western rail workers 'to stage a series of strikes'RMT union announces strikes will include over the August Bank Holiday weekend
• Tube strike to bring London Underground to standstill from Wednesday - againWhen does the Tube strike start? When will it end? And how can I get around London - on buses, trains, in cars and on river boats?
• Tube strike to bring London Underground to standstill from Wednesday - againWhen does the Tube strike start? When will it end? And how can I get around London - on buses, trains, in cars and on river boats?

Mail Online

• Tube strike is ON as Transport for London pushes ahead with all-night service plan Thousands of workers from four unions are due to walk out for 24 hours from 6.30pm on Wednesday evening, shutting down the service for the second time in a month.

The Mirror

• Train company tells passengers: 'Sorry for the delay - there's a sunbather on the tracks'The situation was quickly sorted and the transport company tweeted customers that the sunbather had left the tracks

Birmingham Mail

• £3.5m scheme 'to make transport infrastructure fit for the 21st century'The aim of the project is to help unlock economic growth and aspiration in the borough in light of planned major housing and employment growth ahead of HS2 and the UK Central developments.

Edinburgh Evening News

• MSPs call for Waverley taxi access actionRAIL bosses have been told they must take urgent action to sort out passengers’ access to taxis at Waverley station.

London Evening Standard

• Tube strike August 2015: Unite rejects latest TfL offer to avert fresh walkout on Wednesday A fresh Tube strike appears more likely to take place this week after a union rejected the latest offer from transport bosses.
• Celebrities fight to 'defend our streets' from plans to build Crossrail 2 station near their Chelsea homes Celebrities today urged transport bosses to “defend our streetsâ€� by scrapping plans for a new station in Chelsea as part of a proposed high-speed railway linking north and south London.
• Rail strike: August Bank Holiday getaway set to be plunged into chaos as unions announce walkout on railways The August Bank Holiday getaway from London could be plunged into chaos by strike action on the rail network.

Wales Online

• Train strikes could wreck August Bank Holiday weekend as rail workers plan series of walkouts The RMT union has announced members will walk out in a row over the planned introduction of new trains

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• Transport for London announces the next four Tube lines to be upgraded: Circle Line, District Line, Metropolitan Line and Hammersmith & City LineTransport for London (TfL) has announced plans to begin modernisation work on 40% of London's Tube network. In a statement, the body said work will begin later this year on updating the signalling and train control systems on the Circle, District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines.  The body said the work, will increase the frequency of trains during peak periods to 32 per hour in central London. That's a train every two minutes.  However, it added that upgrade work on the overcrowded Piccadilly, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City lines won't begin until this rou...
• Thales wins €1billion contract to upgrade London underground linesFrench transport and defence group Thales has won a contract worth €1billion to upgrade four London Underground lines, including the oldest part of the network. Under the £760million contract, Thales will modernise signalling and train control systems on the Circle, District Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines, which make up 40% of the network. Upgrading the old equipment should allow the lines to handle on average a third more traffic, Thales said in a statement. Canada's Bombardier was originally awarded the contract to upgrade the lines in 2011, but the contract was te...
• Metro train fleet refurbishment is completedThe £30m refurbishment of the Tyne and Wear Metro’s train fleet has been successfully completed, five months ahead of schedule. DB Regio Tyne and Wear has delivered the work as part of the Metro fleet’s ‘three-quarter life’ refurbishment project. A total of 86 Metro carriages have been modernised over the last five years through the £389m Metro all change modernisation programme, a Government-funded scheme to modernise the system. Nexus, which owns and manages Metro, commissioned DB Regio to undertake the work in 2010 when the Metro modernisation funding wa...

Rail Technology Magazine

• Leroy Automation Commits to a Greener Approach Leroy Automation, a French advanced engineering design house and manufacturer of electronic embedded transit and railway systems, automation products for the electrification of transport & transit networks, and control-command equipment designed for …

Railnews

• TfL signs controversial contract for subsurface signalling Transport for London has awarded a controversial signalling contract for the second time, but the price has more than doubled and the deadline for completion has slipped by several years. The £760 million project is to upgrade the signalling on the subsurface lines of London Underground -- the Metropolitan, District, Hammersmith & City and Circle -- which between them account for 40 per cent of the network's 400 route kilometres, and will be carried out by Thales. TfL said some of the existing signalling 'belongs in a museum', and that new equipment would allow an essential boost in capacity....

Railway Gazette

• Tyne & Wear Metro fleet refurbishment completeUK: The three-quarter life refurbishment of the Tyne & Wear Metro fleet has been completed five months ahead of schedule. A total of 86 cars have been modernised over five years at a cost of £30m.

Aviation Industry

• Easyjet summer strike action avertedStaff agree to accept pay offer

Other News Sources

• Tube strike: unions confirm new 24-hour walkoutUnions will go ahead with a 24-hour strike on London Underground stations from Wednesday evening in a row over the introduction of 24-hour train services.