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

Saturday, 30 October 2010

BBC News

• 'Tests ongoing' after package foundHome Secretary Theresa May has said a suspicious package found on a Chicago-bound plane at East Midlands Airport contained explosives.
• Tube gets first wi-fi connectionCharing Cross will become the first London tube station to get mobile phones and other devices working underground.
• Man dies after being hit by busA man dies and another is taken to hospital after two separate cases of London buses hitting pedestrians.
• OFT to probe Ryanair-Aer LingusBritain's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) launched an investigation in to Ryanair's minority stake in fellow Irish airline Aer Lingus.
• Alstom loses Eurostar court caseAlstom, the French engineering company, fails in an attempt to prevent Eurostar from running German trains through the Channel Tunnel.

Financial Times

• Ryanair cries foul over OFT inquiryThe UK regulator is to investigate the 2006 raid by Ryanair on its rival's Aer Lingus' shares following an earlier examination by the EU
• Court rejects move to halt Eurostar orderAlstom's hopes of overturning Eurostar's planned order for German-built Siemens trains were nearly extinguished after the English High Court rejected the French company's demand for an injunction to block the deal
• Air tax rise sparks fears over loss of traffic to rivals At least one international airline has snubbed the UK in favour of France as a direct result of a 55 per cent rise in air passenger taxes, and more may follow, airport executives say
• Premium traffic behind BA's flight to profitBritish Airways surges back into pre-tax profit as profitable business class seats started filling up again during the economic recovery and amid an increase in average fares

The Guardian

• International terror alert as explosive packages found on planes bound for US¢ Terror alert as explosive packages found on US-bound planes¢ Suspicious package on cargo plane at East Midlands airport¢ Another package found on FedEx plane at Dubai airportSecurity services yesterday thwarted a terrorist attempt to send packages containing explosive material hidden in printer ink cartridges by air from Yemen to strike targets in the US.Last night Barack Obama called the attempt a

The Herald

• New finance chief for Forth PortsStuart Paterson, whose resignation as chief financial officer at Johnston Press was announced earlier this week, has been lured to Forth Ports to help drive its œgrowth strategy.
• Forth Ports sustains ˜upward momentum™ in third quarterForth Ports is continuing to show œupward momentum for the year in which it rebuffed a 1500p a share offer, the Edinburgh-based group said yesterday.

The Telegraph

• Cargo plane terror alert: bombs 'designed to harm US synagogues' International terrorist alert over possible threat to synagogues following discovery of explosive material at British airport.

Daily Express

• Morning meeting: Air Passenger Duty threatens to knock executivesRUNNING a British airline must be like piloting an aircraft in stormy weather. Almost as soon as they get through one belt of turbulence another bolt of lightning strikes.
• Eurotunnel joins race for rail linkCHANNEL Tunnel operator Eurotunnel has tabled a bid for the 68-mile high-speed rail link between London and the Chunnel.
• New tax fears take shine off BA's profit liftBRITISH Airways yesterday reported its first profit in two years but warned a rise in tax on tickets would deter business travellers and tourists -heading for the UK.

Birmingham Mail

• Passengers forced to pay higher prices as stations left unmanned STATIONS on Birmingham’s busy Cross City rail line are being routinely left unmanned – meaning passengers can’t buy the cheapest ticket for their journey, a transport watchdog has warned.

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• MP Philip Davies calls for more train carriages on Airedale and Wharfedale lines AN MP has called on the Government to ensure additional carriages are provided for the Wharfedale and Airedale railway lines.

London Evening Standard

• Tall ship rescue after it loses mastsRescue operation was today under way in the Atlantic Ocean after a training ship with 36 cadets lost both its masts in a strong gale
• Security review after airport alertThe Home Secretary is urgently reviewing security measures for UK-bound cargo from Yemen following the discovery of a suspicious package at a UK airport.
• Obama: airport threat was crediblePackages found at a British airport and in Dubai contained explosives and represented a

The News (Portsmouth)

• MP's bid to take carriers away is 'bound to fail'A LAST-ditch attempt to hi-jack the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers is doomed to fail, the city's two MPs say.

Yorkshire Evening Post

• Minister 'shrugs off' Leeds MP's transport questionsA cabinet minister has been accused of patronising the people of Leeds after he shrugged off questions in the Commons about delayed transport schemes in the city.

Other Regional Press

• Bus routes to change hands WITNEY company RH Buses is to take over operation of three bus routes in west Oxfordshire from Stagecoach from Monday, December 13.
• Bus routes to change hands WITNEY company RH Buses is to take over operation of three bus routes in west Oxfordshire from Stagecoach from Monday, December 13.

International Herald Tribune

• Cruise Ships, and Sarkozy, Rescue Shipyard, for NowThe Chantiers de l’Atlantique, established in the mid-19th century, is hoping to hang on a few more years with support and some salesmanship from President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Railnews

• News: Eurostar wins court battle over new trains with Alstom Eurostar has fended off a court challenge from the French train-builder Alstom, which had been trying to stop an order for ten Siemens trains from going ahead by arguing that there were safety issues.

Railway Gazette

• Amtrak orders Siemens 200 km/h Cities Sprinter locomotivesUSA: Siemens Mobility has won a $466m order to supply Amtrak with 70 ACS64 'Amtrak Cities Sprinter' electric locomotives with a top speed of 200 km/h, the supplier announced on October 28. Deliveries are scheduled to run for six years from 2013, with the locomotives being deployed on the Northeast Corridor and Keystone Corridor as part of Amtrak's programme to reduce journey times and increase service reliability. The Amtrak Cities Sprinter will be a version of Siemens' Eurosprinter family adapted to meet FRA crashworthiness requirements, incorporating redesigned crumple zones, an enhanced ca...
• Industry News in BriefOn January 1 Balfour Beatty Rail™s IVV rail design business in Germany will transfer to Parsons Brinckerhoff, which Balfour Beatty acquired in 2009. This will allow ˜focused investment™ in IVV to develop its footprint in Germany and northern Europe. The IVV name will be retained. GH Electrotermia is providing an induction heating installation for high speed turnout production at the Gijón plant of Spanish track component manufacturer Talleres Alegría. It will be used to anneal forged switch blades for conventional lines and harden blades for high speed turnouts, allowing both to be prod...

Aviation Industry

• Continental expands Heathrow-New YorkContinental Airlines will add a fifth daily flight to its New York service from London’s Heathrow airport this weekend. As of Sunday (October 31), the US-based airline will add an early morning New York-bound flight to its schedule, plus a late evening departure for London. Flight CO115 will leave Heathrow at 8.40am, arriving into New York’s Newark airport at 1.05pm. From Newark, flight CO114 will leave at 11.05pm, arriving into Heathrow at 10.15am the next day. A B757-200 will be used to operate the route. read more

Other News Sources

• Jet makes emergency landing with door problemA British Airways flight to New York has made an emergency landing at Heathrow after a problem with one of the doors.
• OFT should close its ˜Out of Time™ queryRyanair today (29 Oct) confirmed that it was contacted over the past 4 weeks by the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in relation to a query as to whether or not the OFT has jurisdiction to assess Ryanair™s minority (29%) stake in Aer Lingus, and whether this gives Ryanair any material influence or control [...]
• easyJet™s 25 Millionth Passenger From Liverpool Scoops Free Flights for a YeareasyJet has marked flying a milestone of 25 million passengers through Liverpool John Lennon Airport by rewarding the 25 millionth passenger with free flights for a year. Helen Taylor, from Huntington in Chester, was surprised at check-in this morning when she booked onto an easyJet flight to Barcelona with her daughter Lauren. easyJet™s UK Commercial [...]
• Grant award brings freight back to the Caledonian Canal £255k freight initiatives to take lorries off Scotland™s road network and reduce emissions MV Kanutta passes through the Caledonian Canal Scottish Government grants of £255,000 have heralded the return of freight transportation along the Caledonian Canal “ and will benefit the environment by removing over 15,000 lorry trips from the road network. read more
• BAE to upgrade Royal Navy minesweepersBAE Systems has been awarded a six-year contract worth £15m to replace propulsion systems on the Royal Navy™s eight Hunt Class minesweepers.
• Sussex road safety schemes face the axe School safety projects, speed cameras and measures to reduce biker deaths are all facing cuts.
• Edinburgh Airport introduces £1 car drop off chargeThe fee has been branded 'money-grabbing and insensitive' after airport bosses said it was necessary to cut congestion.
• Government urges UK trust port privatisationThe government's National Infrastructure Plan encourages trust ports to privatise if necessary to secure expansion
• British Airways out of the red and into the blackBritish Airways (BA) has posted a pre-tax profit of £158m for the first half as the airline begins the final countdown to its merger with Iberia.
• Shuttle Discovery's final flight delayed The shuttle launch originally scheduled for 1 November has been pushed back by one day due to helium and nitrogen leaks on space shuttle Discovery, NASA...
• BA to launch flight from Gatwick to the CaribbeanAirline carrier British Airways (BA), is set to add an additional service from Gatwick Airport to the Caribbean, the Jamaica Observer has reported.From next year, passengers can fly to San Juan twice a week, one of the 15 Caribbean destinations to be on offer from the travel hub.Travellers will also be able to choose from 64 of BA's UK flights to the tropical paradise.The move was made in response to the popularity of the destination with holidaymakers and has been made possible by BA's co-operation with both Iberia and American Airlines.Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, said tha...
• EC launches procedures against four EU Member States over Russia air agreements The European Commission has launched infringement procedures against France, Germany, Austria and Finland over their bilateral air service agreements with Russia, which include provisions concerning Siberian overflights. read more
• Flying Instructors asked to help cut airspace infringementsAn education campaign, aimed at reducing the number of airspace infringements, has been launched by the Airspace & Safety Initiative (ASI), the broad-based coalition tasked with tackling UK airspace safety risks. Information packs, containing listening squawk information cards, radio best practice kneepads, magazines and interactive CDs, are being sent to all flying schools in the South East of England for distribution to student pilots and qualified pilots hiring aircraft.
• BA boss: airport tax will damage UK economyAirline passengers will have to pay up to £170 more to fly from next week as new aviation taxes are introduced, as the head of BA tells Channel 4 News the levy is