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

Friday, 17 April 2009

BBC News

• Euro car sales still in reverse Sales of new cars across Europe fell 9% in March 2009 compared with a year ago, an industry association says.
• Plugged inCarmakers insist electric cars have a bright future
• Car scrapNot everyone is happy about car scrappage schemes

The Guardian

• Barack Obama annouces high-speed rail plan for 10 busiest US routesBarack Obama today called on Americans to climb aboard with his ambitious vision of building high speed rail corridors along 10 of the country's busiest routes.
• Hoon urged to spend congestion charge fund on public transportThe government should abandon its much criticised road-pricing policy and invest its £1bn congestion charge fund in bus, tram and cycling projects instead, a report said today.
• Greenwash: Four wheels good, two legs bad if you travel with P&O FerriesP&O Ferries says it 'minimises environmental impact' but has a fares policy that discriminates against anyone who wants to come on board on foot rather than in a car
• Police delete London tourists' photosAustrian tourist who photographed bus and Tube stations says 'nasty incident' has put him off returning to LondonLike most visitors to London, Klaus Matzka and his teenage son Loris took several photographs of some of the city's sights, including the famous red double-decker buses. More unusually perhaps, they also took pictures of the Vauxhall bus station, which Matzka regards as

The Herald

• Lord who was shunted into a sidingIF you are boarding the Inverness to Aberdeen train at the unearthly hour of 4.57am tomorrow morning, you might spot a balding, possibly besuited gentleman, who may look slightly older than his 46 years.
• Railing at the mediocrityOvercrowding, broken toilets, shabby stations and confusing ticketing arrangements - this is the daily experience of passengers on Scotland's railways.
• 'Punctuality is not the only important thing on a train’Scotland’s trains may run on time but, writes Mark Smith, a lack of decent food, dirty toilets and tatty stations let them down.

The Telegraph

• Electric car proposals dismissed as gimmick Drivers could receive up to £5000 to subsidise the purchase of an electric car under a new £250 million Government scheme designed to promote environmentallyfriendly transport.
• Electric cars can't run without electricity from polluting power stations [letter]SIR – Our detailed calculations show that an electric car in Britain will emit the same or more carbon than an equivalent diesel-powered vehicle. In China, where most electricity is said to be coal-fired, an electric car would be an environmental disaster, emitting double the carbon.
• Incentives for motorists to buy electric cars: question and answers Motorists would be offered incentives of up to £5000 to buy electric cars under new government proposals. Here David Millward Transport Editor answers key questions about the scheme:
• Commuters handed free books Commuters are being handed free books in a scheme designed to broaden what they have to read on the London Underground.

Times Online

• Andrew Adonis: want to improve the railways? Ask the staffStaff have practical suggestions for improving the railways. They no longer see themselves as a declining industry
• More flights on time, says Civil Aviation AuthorityPassenger numbers are down and flights have been cut, but the Civil Aviation Authority yesterday discovered a silver lining amid the dark clouds hanging over the airline industry - punctuality has improved at nearly all of Britain's airports.
• Plan to increase popularity of electric cars stalls over subsidy snagNo electric car that is available now, or for at least the next two years, will qualify for government grants of up to £5,000 announced yesterday. Even the handful of concept cars currently being tested may be ineligible because ministers insist that they will only subsidise cars with “mass market appeal”, in terms of range and speed.
• We pedestrians have reached a crossroadScramble crossings operate smoothly in polite Japan, but will they work in aggressive London?
• Eurostar gets set for rivals as business travel declinesEurostar is bracing itself for competition from rival high-speed train operators by cutting costs and refitting trains as it copes with a sharp downturn in business travel on its services from London to Paris and Brussels.

Reuters News

• Costain and Skanska get Crossrail deal (Reuters) - Costain Group said its joint venture with Nordic building firm Skanska was selected as a contractor for London's most ambitious transport project Crossrail's civil framework deal with a potential value of more than 250 million pounds. Skip related content

Transport Briefing

• East London Line station changes proposed by TfLTransport for London has submitted a planning application to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets requesting permission to go ahead with an upgrade to Wapping station on the East London Line.
• Milton Keynes developer tariff pays for bus routeA new bus service linking the eastern expansion area of Milton Keynes with the city centre has been launched this week.

Birmingham Post

• Lord Adonis says priorities are capacity boost and improving routesLonger trains, more train carriages and an improved rail service are the Government’s main priorities for Birmingham, the minister for transport has said.

London Evening Standard

• BAA lining up £10m Olympic sponsor deal for HeathrowBritish Airports Authority is in talks to become a sponsor of the Olympics in a deal that would confirm Heathrow as the gateway to the 2012 Games
• Battle over electric car offerA fresh battle erupted over the green agenda as motorists were promised incentives of up to £5,000 to buy an electric car
• Tories attack plan to pay drivers £5,000 for buying an electric carThe Tories denounced plans for an electric car revolution as flawed immediately after ministers unveiled them today. Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson pledged incentives of up to £5,000 to encourage drivers to buy an electric car, but shadow chancellor George Osborne dismissed the proposals and stressed that they needed to be taken with a “pinch of salt”.
• Eurostar hit by 250,000 plunge in passengersPassenger numbers are plummeting on the Eurostar. Despite its swanky new home at St Pancras and the promise of record times to Paris, Eurostar admitted today it carried 250,000 fewer passengers in the first three months of 2009, a fall of 11.5% back to 1.92 million.

Newcastle Evening Chronicle

• Newcastle's West Road could still get bus lanesPLANS for bus lanes on one of Newcastle’s busiest roads look set to be resurrected.

Sheffield Telegraph

• Council under attack for tram gates 'silence'BUS and tram operators have criticised Sheffield Council for not responding to a 1,500-signature petition calling for no further cuts to the hours of Hillsborough bus and tram gates.

The Press and Journal (Aberdeen)

• City taxi drivers hail decision to drive in bus lanesTAXI drivers in Aberdeen have welcomed a change in legislation that allows them to drive in bus lanes at any time of day.

Yorkshire Evening Post

• Airport's £70m expansion plan under threat in transport clashAMBITIOUS plans to expand Leeds Bradford International Airport and attract millions more passengers have been kicked into touch.
• Research group calls for end to road-price bullyingTHE Government is today urged to give up trying to "bully" councils into introducing congestion charging schemes and instead pump £1bn directly into public transport improvements.
• Minister gives Leeds a miss on rail tripTRANSPORT minister Lord Adonis has been accused of snubbing rail users in Leeds during a nationwide fact-finding mission.

Bucks Free Press

• Bus trackers will improve waiting time, council says BUSES will run on time more thanks to new tracker technology, a council boss has said.

Peterborough Telegraph

• Work begins to fill in 'traffic-calming' potholesWork has begun to repair roads in an Essex village where potholes are seen as a "natural traffic calming" measure.

Washington Post

• Obama pushes for high-speed rail WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will seek to develop high-speed rail nationally, President Barack Obama said on Thursday in emphasizing a broader commitment to U.S. infrastructure investment and a transportation alternative ignored or dismissed by previous administrations but long embraced by Asia and Europe.
• U.S., Fiat to name Chrysler board on alliance: memo DETROIT (Reuters) - The U.S. government and Italy's Fiat SpA will appoint a board of directors for Chrysler if the two automakers complete a proposed alliance, Chrysler Chief Executive Bob Nardelli said on Thursday.

Other News Sources

• Legal action could stall bus serviceGo North East says if Durham County Council does not rerun the contest for the Durham City parkand- ride, it will seek a legal injunction preventing a new operator being named.
• BUS SITE'S £200K MAKEOVERThe state of the bus station, in Jubilee Walk, has been a major gripe for many townspeople for several years but St Edmundsbury Council will spend £200,000 during the 16-week refurbishment to create a 'good impression' of the town.
• Big bus registrations up, risks in the sectorUK bus and coach registrations have shown some signs of recovery in March, with big buses performing particularly well, although industry experts have warned that figures could soon go down.
• Concern over Clayton bus lane car park plansA £50 MILLION bus lane has hit more controversy after residents hit out at plans for a series of new car parks.
• Will High Speed Rail Really HappenIf Central Florida does get a train, where would it run and what does the governor think?"The high speed rail corridors we've identified so far would connect areas like the cities of the Pacific North...
• Crossrail project will manage 600 truck-loads a dayCrossrail expects to manage around 600 truck-loads per day in its mammoth project to build a rail link between East and West London.
• FTA boosts turnover, surplus and membershipThe Freight Transport Association (FTA) increased its income by 3.4% last year to £26.2m.
• Government support for electric cars welcome - but far more needed to build genuine green futureGovernment proposals to boost electric cars are a move in the right direction, but far more is needed to cut the transport sectors contribution to climate change, says Friends of the Earth
• US piracy stance criticisedSCEPTICISM has greeted some elements of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's latest policy proposals on piracy.
• NOL warns of $240M in lossesNEPTUNE Orient Lines warned the Singapore Exchange today that it now expects losses of $240M in the first quarter.
• EU ministers offer 'co-leadership' on climateEuropean Union environment ministers said they would offer the United States and other developed nations
• 'Green motoring revolution'From 2011 the government is to offer anyone who buys an electric car £5,000, as John Sparks reports.
• Focus on wing clearance led London City RJs to bump tails: inquiryFailure by ground personnel to monitor tail clearance while manoeuvring, ironically, to ensure wingtip avoidance led to the minor collision between two BAE Systems Avro RJs at London City a year ago.
• Premium traffic down 21.1%Premium traffic fell 21.1% in February following from the 16.7% decline seen in January, while revenues fell 30%.
• Eurostar business sales down 20%Q1 passenger numbers suffer Eurostar has reported a 20% decline in sales from business travel in the first quarter 2009 year-on-year.

News from Europe

• transport logistic 2009: The recession – a short pause before rail freight transport really gets movThe global economic crisis is also impacting on rail freight. For 2009, experts are putting the downturn in the freight business in Germany at around four percent. What medium- and long-term effects will this have? Politicians, representatives from industry associations, logistics professionals and freight forwarders will be coming together at transport logistic 2009 in Munich to analyze the current situation.

Other Subscription Services

• NOL warns of $240m first quarter lossNEPTUNE Orient Lines hit by sudden contraction in container trades during the early weeks of 2009.