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

Saturday, 09 October 2010

BBC News

• Roads cordoned off for protestsPart of Leicester is cordoned off ahead of two protests, which have sparked the largest police operation in the county for 25 years.
• Passengers 'trapped' in stationLondon Underground passengers were trapped in a locked station for nearly 45 minutes during Monday's Tube strike.

Financial Times

• Alstom faces flak on timing of safety remarksThe French group's stance will reinforce suspicions that its complaints result from frustration that a high-profile order for distributed power trains has gone to its rival in the high-speed market
• Cebu Air flotation set to raise $539mThe company behind the Philippines' largest budget airline is set to raise at least $539m in the country's first IPO of the year, taking advantage of a booming market
• Oneworld lands deal to shift balance of powerA joint transatlantic business launched by alliance members British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia is expected to prompt many changes both for carriers and their passengers

The Herald

• Train shortage fears as £200m fleet is refusedScotland™s rail network is to face a shortage of trains from December after the biggest order of rolling stock in a generation hit major problems in testing.

The Independent

• BA computer expert in court on terrorism charges A British Airways computer expert alleged to have offered himself as a suicide bomber appeared in court today.

The Telegraph

• Millions of passengers could have been falsely charged for luggage, trading standards sayMillions of passengers, travelling through Gatwick Airport, could have been falsely charged for excess baggage because the weighing scales were faulty, an official investigation has found.

Mail Online

• David Cameron's ministers take Tube but their papers are chauffeur-drivenThe prime minister launched the crackdown on the use of chauffeur-driven ministerial cars, which cost more than £10million a year under Labour, within weeks of taking office.

Birmingham Mail

• Suspended sentence for peer's daughter who smashed car through church gates A peer's daughter who narrowly missed pedestrians as she smashed her Land Rover through a set of church gates and into two other cars in Malvern has been given a suspended jail sentence.
• Funding cuts could leave Birmingham's canals in ruins, says heritage body BIRMINGHAM’S canal network faces falling into ruin after the Government announced that British Waterways will be scrapped, a heritage group has warned.

Bolton News

• Motorists warned over number plates MOTORISTS are being urged to have safety screws fitted to their cars™ number plates to prevent them being stolen.
• Passengers given empty promises over rail services RAIL passengers in Bolton have been œlied to

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• Injured man cut free by firefighters after Brighouse crashAn injured man was freed from a car by firefighters following a crash near Brighouse last night.
• Merger of two travel firms on the cards A Bradford-born retail chief is at the centre of moves to create Britain™s biggest high street travel agency and currency exchange business Peter Marks, chief executive of the Co-operative Group, announced a merger which will involve more than 50 Co-operative Travel and Thomas Cook agency branches in Bradford and West Yorkshire. Thomas Cook™s Going Places shops will be re-branded Co-operative Travel.
• Cable theft leads to train line chaos Thieves stole a 70-metre length of high-voltage copper cable from the railway line between Bradford and New Pudsey causing travel misery for commuters.

Edinburgh Evening News

• Fears trams face a 20-year delay before reaching LeithANY hopes of a tram line stretching from Edinburgh Airport to Newhaven are fading after project bosses finally admitted the first part of the route to open would only go as fa

Liverpool Post

• Long delays expect on Liverpool’s Prescot Road DRIVERS are being urged to avoid a busy junction in East Liverpool until the end of the month due to a huge roadworks programme.

London Evening Standard

• Girl paralysed in road crash is awarded record £17.5mSixth-form student paralysed in a road accident has received a record £17.5million compensation payout

Metro

• Pollution fears for Cornwall as fuel tanker crashes in English ChannelA fuel tanker has collided with a container ship in the English Channel, prompting fears that pollution may reach the south-west coast of England.

The Press and Journal (Aberdeen)

• Support group plans for railway museumPLANS have emerged to form a support group to secure the future of a Buchan visitor attraction which tracks the region™s bygone railway era.

The York Press

• Cable thieves cause £100,000 damage to Selby railway line POLICE are hunting for thieves who stole metal cable from a railway line in Selby causing £100,000 damage.

Yorkshire Evening Post

• Leeds Bradford bus route's users risingA key commuter route between Leeds and Bradford has seen a rise in passenger levels.

The Shields Gazette

• Tunnel will top safest road linksANTI-FIRE work on the original 1967 Tyne Tunnel will make it one of the safest road links in Europe.

Other Regional Press

• Government minister test drives sewage car at Stoneleigh A GOVERNMENT minister got behind the wheel in Warwickshire to test drive a car powered by sewage.
• Parking survey is flawed, says Melksham council Melksham Town Council has backed objections to Wiltshire Council™s consultation on the future of car parking across the county.

C.N.N.

• 28 oil tankers carrying fuel for NATO forces attackedDozens of oil tankers carrying fuel for NATO forces caught fire Saturday after gunmen attacked in Pakistan's western Baluchistan province, local police said.

Railnews

• News: Alstom and French ministers play safety card in bid to block Eurostar Siemens purchase The French train maker Alstom and French ministers are calling for Eurostar's acquisition of Siemens Velaro trains to be quashed, on the grounds that the rolling stock does not comply with Channel Tunnel safety rules.

Railway Gazette

• Trans-Hudson rail tunnel project scrapped USA: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie halted the 'Access to the Region's Core' project to increase commuter rail capacity across the Hudson River on October 7, saying the cost of the $8·7bn project centred on a 5·5 km twin-bore tunnel could increase to more than $11bn, and possibly as much as $14bn. 'I have made a pledge to the people of New Jersey that on my watch I will not allow taxpayers to fund projects that run over budget with no clear way of how these costs will be paid for', said Christie. 'Considering the unprecedented fiscal and economic climate our state is facing, it is complet...
• Pointers October 2010Last month the national railways of Russia and Ukraine established a joint working group to investigate high speed passenger services on three routes from Moscow to Kyiv, Adler and Feodosiya. Moscow - Kyiv is the priority, but RZD says 'it is still too early to estimate the time and cost of the project and the rolling stock to be used'. On August 31 the Ministry of Transport of Vietnam authorised JICA to launch feasibility studies into the construction of two sections of standard gauge railway to link Hanoi with Vinh and Ho Chi Minh City with Nha Trang. In May, National Assembly deputies voted...

Other News Sources

• IATA Applauds ICAO Agreement on Aviation and Climate ChangeThe International Air Transport Association (IATA) applauded the 190 contracting states of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on achieving the first global governmental...
• Pininfarina reveals details of new Eurostar designItalian design group Pininfarina has revealed details of the redesign of the exteriors and interiors of Eurostar™s trains and its plans for the ten new ˜320™ trains.
• Seeing light at the end of world's longest rail tunnelSeeing light at the end of the tunnel will be more than just a catch phrase when Swiss engineers blast through the last Alpine granite barrier Oct 15 at the Gotthard Base Tunnel - the world's longest rail tunnel.
• French dockers to stage another national port strike French dockers are expected to stage another national port strike Tuesday October 12 in an escalating campaign to force the government to slow if not abandon port reforms to privatise cargo handling and transfer workers from the public to the private sector, according to the Shipping Gazette. Strike action has involved reducing the workday by an hour or a shift since January; A
• Merger of multimodal and interRail transport As of 1st January 2011, Multimodal Transport Equipment GmbH and InterRail Transport GmbH will merge into InterRail Logistics GmbH. The new headquarters will be in Frankfurt/Main. The Multimodal subsidiary in Berlin, Grünauer Street, remains and will also become part of InterRail Logistics. The name Multimodal will only be used as a product name for intermodal container transportation, including combined short sea/rail transport.The merger of Multimodal and InterRail Transport is part of a general restructuring of the international InterRail Group, specialized in CIS railway transport and wit...
• APL named Asia™s top container shipping line for third straight year For the third straight year, APL has been named Asian Container Shipping Line of the Year.  The award was announced here tonight at the 12th annual Lloyd™s List Asia awards. Singapore-based APL, the world™s fifth largest carrier, won from a field of finalists including Maersk Line and Emirates Shipping.  The award was presented by Lloyd™s List, one of the oldest and best-known shipping industry newspapers. œWe™re gratified to be recognized with this honor again, said APL President Eng Aik Meng.  œTo have won in 2008, 2009 and 2010 shows the passion our employees have...
• Traffic Collapse at Dublin AirportRyanair responded to August traffic figures for Dublin Airport which showed 1,800,000 fewer passengers in the eight months to August 2010, a 12% year-to-date decline (12.5m vs. 14.3m). Ryanair called on the Govt to axe its €10 tourist tax and reverse the 40% price hikes at Dublin Airport in 2010 where traffic is on target to [...]
• Airport Passengers Match 2009 LevelsFor the second consecutive month, Isle of Man Airport passenger figures have effectively matched 2009 levels, a further indication that traffic through the Airport is beginning to pick up after a lengthy spell of decline. In fact, there was again a tiny 0.07% increase in September, as 63,473 passengers passed through the Airport, 43 more [...]
• 3663 spend £5m on new DAFsFoodservice company 3663 has replaced the previously Scania fleet at its Nottingham depot with 46 DAF CF65 18-tonners in a deal worth £5m.
• Tinnelly buys goodwill of collapsed haulier Boyes ConningNorthern Irish firm Tinnelly Transport has established a presence on the south coast of England after buying the goodwill of collapsed Southampton haulier Boyes Conning Freight Services.

Other Subscription Services

• Eagle twin flies off with shadow transport jobMaria Eagle has become shadow transport secretary following Labour leader Ed Miliband's announcement of the new shadow cabinet.Eagle, who is MP for Garston and Halewood in Merseyside, has previously...