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

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

BBC News

• Chepstow to welcome extra trains Arriva Cross Country has promised to more than triple the number of trains serving Chepstow station from May.
• Free train offer for Air Southwest London passengers Passengers booked on Air Southwest's withdrawn London service have been offered alternative rail transport. First Great Western (FGW) will honour tickets from Plymouth or Newquay after Air Southwest announced flights would stop at the end of January.
• Foreign sales out the backdoor for new London bus? [blog]The new bus for London is one of Mayor Boris Johnson's flagship transport projects costing £7m in research and development.
• Bus firm wins New Zealand orderThe Falkirk bus maker Alexander Dennis wins a £25m order to supply 120 buses to New Zealand.
• Toyota expands Prius car brandThe Japanese carmaker Toyota is adding new models under its Prius petrol-electric hybrid label.

Financial Times

• Fiat chief confident of Mirafiori voteSergio Marchionne has expressed confidence that he would succeed in pushing through changes to Fiat™s car production system in Italy

The Guardian

• How the American commuter gets railroaded The terrible time we have with the Washington DC Metro is symptomatic of bad attitudes to public transportation in the US
• Making better use of London's funding Nicholas Griffin is a man driven by a personal need to know that he "made a difference". As the London mayoral adviser on budgets and performance, he has his work cut out in trying to persuade the Greater London authority (GLA) and its agencies to use resources "more smartly" in the climate of spending cuts.
• Can Ken out-pedal Boris on cycling? [blog]The Mayor is entitled to call his cycle hire scheme a success so far, despite teething troubles, technical hitches, missed targets and the statistical over-representation of white males from affluent households among its patrons.

The Herald

• The £1m bill to rid capital™s roads of potholesScotland™s capital city is facing an estimated £1 million bill to repair 40,000 potholes “ twice the average number “ following this winter™s freeze.

The Telegraph

• BAE abandons $1.5bn sale of Platform Solutions AE Systems has abandoned plans to sell a US division that makes parts for civil aircraft, after failing to get the price it wanted.
• Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou's own law firm Bird & Bird sues easyJet founder over unpaid bills The law firm that represented Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou in his brand dispute with easyJet, resulting in a royalty deal heading for £10m a year, is suing him over unpaid bills.
• Insurers could get access to DVLA database Motor insurers could be given access to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency records, Mike Penning, the road safety minister, has told MPs.
• Alstom denies paying £81m bribesFrench engineering group Alstom has denied allegations by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) that it paid £81m in bribes to foreign officials between 2004 and 2010.
• Petrol prices forcing parents to share school run Nearly half of parents are thinking of sharing the school run in an attempt to cut down on the cost of running their cars, after petrol prices hit a fresh record.

Mail Online

• Number of passengers killed in airline crashes soars in 2010 ¿ but it's still safer than travelling on the roadsThere were 817 deaths to passengers and crew in 2010 compared with 749 in 2009 and only 583 in 2008, statistics from Flight International magazine showed.
• 'Meal deal' on train: Passenger told he cannot leave packet of crisps he didn't wantThe business man was on the National Express East Anglia service to London when he was forced to take the crisps, along with a drink and BLT sandwich.
• Boris Johnson wages Twitter war on Tube union over Royal Wedding strike threatBoris Johnson issued a rallying cry to commuters to 'bombard' the website of union Aslef which wants to strike when Prince William weds Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29.
• New York snow: More than 2,000 flights cancelled on East CoastA storm which has caused havoc in the South over the last 48 hours is now bearing down on New York and New Jersey just two weeks after another massive snowstorm paralysed the Big Apple.

Birmingham Mail

• Jaguar Land Rover chief at Downing Street DAVID Cameron pledged to help businesses get Britain working again as he met the boss of Jaguar Land Rover at Downing Street.
• EasyJet apologises for fuel error at Birmingham airport EasyJet has apologised after 30 passengers were ordered off a plane in Birmingham which had been loaded with too much fuel to take off.

Journal Live

• MPs join the battle to protect North East port jobs THE battle to safeguard North East tourism jobs continued today as businesses and MPs nationwide united to fight Liverpool's expansion plans.

London Evening Standard

• Pay-as-you-dig repairs set to end ‘ghost’ roadworksAbandoned 'ghost' roadworks that blight London’s streets are expected to disappear within months as a pay-as-you-dig scheme becomes one step closer to law today

Manchester Evening News

• Pictures: Investigators find a 26ft block of ice caused airport train crash in tunnel A train carrying passengers from Manchester Airport crashed in a tunnel at 70mph after a huge block of ice fell from a ventilation shaft, investigators have found. More than 40 passengers were on board the York-bound TransPennine Express train when it derailed in the Summit tunnel, near Todmorden, early on December 28.
• M62 hard shoulder to be converted into extra lane at Eccles interchange Thousands of drivers will benefit from an extra lane leading to one of the north west's busiest motorway junctions. Every day some 60,000 motorists use the exit slip road at Junction 12 of the M62 at Eccles “ either to get onto the M60 or to travel into Manchester city centre.

Newcastle Evening Chronicle

• Metro bosses Nexus defend safety allegations METRO owner Nexus has defended itself against allegations of safety problems on the system. As reported in the Chronicle last week, former worker Bijan Zakeri raised a series of concerns at an employment tribunal hearing.

Northern Echo

• Rural bus services bear brunt of measures to save £1.3m THE North-East™s biggest council is planning to slash subsidies for rural bus services on evenings and Sundays, The Northern Echo has learnt.

Sheffield Star

• First pledges to change 'unreliable' bus servicesCHANGES have been promised to Sheffield bus services which passengers have complained are unreliable.

The York Press

• York train derailment: new detail and first pictures revealedPICTURES have been released of the huge mound of ice that caused the near-disastrous derailment of a York train.

This Is Local London Network

• Safety plans for Gary Mason death junction were 'shelved' Safety improvements to the danger junction where boxing champ Gary Mason was killed were shelved, despite residents warning a serious accident or fatality there was inevitable.

Yorkshire Evening Post

• Leeds railway station to be improvedSet apart from the town centre, Morley railway station is isolated and unwelcoming.

Bucks Free Press

• Train station road works put on hold A FORECAST cold snap has put a temporary freeze on road works due to start tonight near Wycombe Train Station.

Sunderland Echo

• Flight route hits the skidsA BUDGET airline has pulled out of a North East airport just months after threatening to withdraw over a controversial new charge.

Other Regional Press

• Bus cuts ˜pennywise and pound foolish™More than 330,000 bus journeys a year across Lancashire are to be axed and fares set to rise as council bosses prepare to slash subsidies for public transport.
• Aberdeen set for new flights to New YorkA NEW route to New York from Aberdeen was launched at Aberdeen Airport.

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• London rail network 'to see 30% increase in commuters'The number of commuters using train services into the centre of the capital will increase by 30 per cent at peak morning times by 2031, it has been predicted.According to a new report published by Network Rail, further investment is therefore needed in tracks and stations to cope with the rise.The infrastructure services group is currently running a consultation on the issue of train services in the south east and has noted that capacity levels in the region are already stretched.Building on previous documents on the same theme, the latest draft report looks at existing connections into and ou...

Aviation Industry

• We™re sorry, but Heathrow did all it couldAirports everywhere were hit by snow, but we will learn the lessons of December™s disruption...
• Saudi airline to join SkyteamSkyteam has announced its first middle eastern member, Saudi Arabian Airlines, will join in 2012
• AA and JAL announce joint venture start dateAmerican Airlines (AA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) will start their new transpacific joint business on April 1, the airlines have revealed
• AA wins court injunction against SabreA court says Sabre must not hide American Airline's fares on the GDS until it has ruled on a contractual dispute
• Bmi's knuckles rapped for 'schoolboy error'The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that an advert published by Bmi misled customers and breached a number of advertising codes

Other News Sources

• Alstom executives challenge arrestsTwo executives at the UK arm of French engineer Alstom are challenging the legality of their arrests and searches of their homes as part of a probe into claims that the company paid more than £80m in bribes to win contracts overseas.
• Firm has 'no plans' to send more buses to transport hubBUS giant Stagecoach says it has "no plans" to re-route any more services to Hartlepool's new £4m transport hub.
• Key Travel boss to become GTMC vice chairmanAjay Sodha will be replace CWT's Andrew Waller as the Guild of Travel Management Companies' vice chairman

Other Subscription Services

• Stagecoach Orders 520 New Vehicles for UK * Transport group to buy 360 buses and coaches for UK regions * Fleet of 160 vehicles to be leased for London operations * Passengers across UK benefit from investment in greener buses * Orders bring UK spend on new vehicles in past four years to nearly £290m