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

Monday, 22 June 2009

BBC News

• Cycle scheme gets £200,000 boostA fund that encourages families to walk and cycle in Lincolnshire has been boosted with a £200,000 grant.

Financial Times

• Optimistic sums risk BA landing in a pensions holeBA's gross pension assets, at £12.2bn, are larger than its operating assets of £10.5bn. And the company expects to pay £320m into the pension fund over the next year - rather more than last year's net operating cash flow of £133m. There is, of course, no dividend.
• Stagecoach backers await sales newsStagecoach warned in April that its rail division risked slipping into the red, writes Gill Plimmer . The bus and train operator, which reveals full-year results...
• Rail freight operators feel the strain UK rail freight traffic has fallen sharply in the past quarter, according to new figures that show the effect of the recession on the industry is deepening
• Tokyo plans emergency loan to JALKaoru Yosano, the Japanese finance minister, said the government was preparing a loan to loss-making Japan Airlines, caught by severe airline turbulence in the global economic crisis

The Guardian

• BA may ditch OpenSkies as transatlantic flights diveBritish Airways is considering ditching its OpenSkies subsidiary, which operates flights from Paris and Amsterdam to the US, in a move that would reflect the ongoing severity of the recession and slump in business passengers on transatlantic routes.
• TfL finds a way to mind the gapProgramme of efficiencies, redundancies and delays is expected to get tube upgrade back on trackTransport for London has narrowed the tube funding gap by £2.5bn after deferring upgrade work, cutting 1,000 jobs and rewriting engineering contracts.The cost saving, to be revealed on Wednesday, is a significant step towards solving a financial crisis that has threatened to damage the administration of the London mayor, Boris Johnson.Under the new budget plan for three-quarters of the tube network, £800m will be saved by postponing improvements to 50 stations and pushing back plans to launch more f...

The Herald

• Inaction station: Gogar depot delay hits Edinburgh tram planTHE AGENCY behind the Edinburgh tram project has admitted for the first time that a key piece of work could be nine months late, effectively killing off any remaining hope that the controversial network will be completed before the end of 2011.

The Independent

• Branson ignites war of words with British AirwaysSir Richard Branson has turned up the heat in the ongoing and increasingly acrimonious row between Britain's biggest two long-haul airlines, saying that the Government should not step in to save struggling British Airways.

The Scotsman

• Stagecoach's Souter hoping to ride out rail stormINVESTORS will be looking keenly this week at how Stagecoach boss Brian Souter's measures have combated the effect of job losses in the south-east.
• 'No way' tram project will stay within £545m budgetTHE city's tram line will not be ready until May 2012 unless transport bosses can make up for a nine-month delay on crucial work at the Gogar tram depot, it can be revealed today.
• Tram works edge toward late finishSHOPPERS in Edinburgh's Princes Street may glance across the closed-off roadway to find it deserted apart from red and white barriers, portable buildings and works vans.

The Telegraph

• Lord Adonis: 'high-speed rail would be end of domestic flights'A high-speed rail network in Britain would mean the end of domestic flights and short flights to Europe, according to Lord Adonis, the new Transport Secretary.
• Sir Richard Branson cautions over any aid for BASir Richard Branson has urged the Government to abandon British Airways to its fate should the flag-carrying airline appear to be losing its "fight for survival".
• BA chief snubs select committee hearingWillie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways, has refused to go before the House of Commons Transport Committee to give evidence for a hearing on the future of aviation.

Times Online

• Lord Adonis sees demise of short flightsTHE new transport secretary, Lord Adonis, believes a 200mph high-speed rail network in Britain will spell the end for domestic flights and short flights to Europe.
• Branson to ministers: let BA go bustSir Richard Branson has rubbed salt in British Airways™ wounds by declaring BA practically worthless, and urging the government to resist any attempts to bail it out.
• Greens told no alternative to fossil fuelsLISTEN to ministers and green campaigners and you would think that we are on a happy path to greener energy, with renewable sources of power freeing us from reliance on fossil fuels.

Press Association

• £50m to increase train punctualityPassengers on a main London to Scotland rail route are still suffering from the poorest train punctuality in the country despite the completion of a £9 billion upgrade project, it has been revealed.
• Hundreds of flights scrappedAir passengers are having to contend with the scrapping of hundreds of flights a week at top UK airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick.

Mail Online

• 'Don't bail out BA if it goes bust' Richard Branson urges Government

Network Rail

• TRAIN PUNCTUALITY REACHES NEW RECORD HIGH

Derby Telegraph

• Timetable delay hits new city bus stationBUS passengers will have to wait until next year to use Derby's new bus station. It had been hoped that people would be able to start using the new station, which is part of the £100m Riverlights development, by October.

London Evening Standard

• Boris’s electric car plan trips over trailing wiresThere are serious doubts over Boris Johnson's plan for an electric car revolution in London

Manchester Evening News

• Millions at stake over M60 cracks THE Highways Agency could seek to recover millions of pounds over the forced closure of a six-mile stretch of the M60. The motorway was closed in one direction this weekend between Junction 19 at Middleton, near Rochdale, and Junction 23 at Ashton under Lyne, as tests began to find out why mysterious cracks have been appearing in the surface.
• Bus lane fines axed over bugHUNDREDS of drivers caught using bus lanes have escaped fines after a computer virus forced town hall chiefs to cancel their tickets. The `Conficker worm' caused chaos when it hit Manchester town hall in February. Now we can reveal the bug cost the council more than £43,000 in `lost' bus lane fines. The computer problems meant 1,609 tickets could not be issued within the 28-day legal limit - rendering them useless.

Metro

• £50m to mend faults on £9bn rail lineRail bosses have been forced to pump another £50million into trying to improve the main London to Scotland route.

Nottingham Evening Post

• Rift deepens over future of tramCITY councillors fear the Conservatives who now run Notts County Council may try to put the brakes on new tram lines altogether as well as withdrawing funds for them.

This Is Local London Network

• Frustrated commuters to have their say in MertonPublic transport providers will be at the meeting in the Civic Centre to gauge opinion and listen to ideas on how services in and out of the area can be improved.

Wales Online

• Welsh councils may be forced to close roadsROADS in Wales may have to close because councils cannot afford to guarantee safety for drivers and cyclists, a leading highways official has warned.

Peterborough Telegraph

• Air passenger duty warning for flightsAir passengers are having to contend with the scrapping of hundreds of flights a week by airlines at leading UK airports, including at Stansted and Luton.

Other News Sources

• Town can cash in on Metro Rail linkA GOVERNMENT Minister says Hartlepool has a "strong case" for clinching investment so it can become part of a new Metro rail system. Nick Brown has told the Mail of his determination for the town to be included in the exciting Tees Valley Metro link.
• Big push to fund linking of rail linesA rallying call has gone out the local community to support a summer appeal for £85,000 to re-couple two railway lines and bring thousands more visitors to north Norfolk.
• High-speed rail link between London and Manchester to be subsidisedThe UK government has finally come clean with regards to the cost of a proposed high-speed rail link between London and Manchester.
• 725,000 affected by aircraft noise at HeathrowBAA has admitted that more than double the number of people are affected by aircraft noise from Heathrow than it previously estimated, campaigners have claimed.
• Transport consultation beginsA wide-ranging consultation on plans to improve transport in and around Builth Wells is to get under way with a public exhibition of the proposals.
• Funding black hole could hit vital transport improvementsPLANS to build new roads, railway stations, schools and other key infrastructure to sustain thousands of new homes in south Worcestershire face a massive financial black hole.