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

Wednesday, 03 August 2011

BBC News

• Guernsey transport watchdog could fold as support ends Guernsey's travel watchdog could close down after the Commerce and Employment Department decided to withdraw support.
• Operator First increases bus services in Bristol The number of buses going to Bristol's Cribbs Causeway is being increased by operator First.
• Gloucestershire council cuts bus routes to save money Two subsidised bus services are to be cut in Gloucestershire as the council looks at ways to make savings.
• Northamptonshire bus strategy unveiled A strategy for public transport in Northamptonshire, including a new bus service linking rural communities, has been unveiled.
• Dominic Utton emails First Great Western for each delay A train commuter became so angry at regular delays - he has pledged to write a complaining email every time his service is late.
• London Midland unveils new £93m Snow Hill fleet London Midland has unveiled its new £93m fleet which will be introduced in the autumn. The 27 trains, to run on the Snow Hill line between Worcester and Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon, will replace the current 25-year-old fleet, the operator said.
• Airport boss resigns after yearThe managing director of Edinburgh Airport resigns after a year in post and announces he is moving to Australia.
• Campaign highlights rail dangersNI transport company, Translink and the police have launched a new safety campaign highlighting the dangers of "messing around" near railway lines.
• Manchester Metrolink to be operated by French firm RATP Manchester's Metrolink tram network is to be operated by a French government-owned transport company.
• Parsons to become Heathrow writerNovelist and journalist Tony Parsons is to take up the writer-in-residence role at Heathrow Airport.
• Gatwick rail disruption continuesTrains between London and Gatwick Airport continue to be affected by a landslip, but operator Southern says four out of five lines in Croydon are running.
• Late-night trains for festivalsScotRail will be running more late-night trains to Glasgow, Fife and Perth during this year's festival season in Edinburgh.
• Haywards Heath station plans include shops and hotel A supermarket, hotel, shops and a cafe are planned as part of a redevelopment of one of the major stations on the London to Brighton railway line.
• Vilnius mayor crushes car parked in cycle laneThe mayor of Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, has been filmed using an armoured vehicle to crush a car parked illegally in a cycle lane.

Department for Transport

• Government urges commuters and businesses to travel differently during London 2012Transport Minister Norman Baker today urged commuters and businesses in London to think differently about how they travel during the Olympic Games as he marked a year to go to what is likely to be one of the busiest days on the transport network.

Financial Times

• Protesters seek to block Dover saleOpponents of plans to privatise Europe's busiest ferry port call on the government to use a revised set of criteria for the sale of trust ports

The Herald

• Coach class reinvented by budget sleeper service IT is a journey long associated with luxury and romance, with passengers enjoying the plush carriages of a œhotel on wheels on the overnight train between London and Scotland.

The Scotsman

• Flat-out to London on the sleeper bus IT MAY not provide quite the luxury of a rock star's tour bus, but it could give passengers more slumber than the usual semi-reclined seat.

Daily Express

• TAXPAYERS’ £15M SPENT ON STITCH-UP AT BOMBARDIER MINISTERS were accused of “adding insult to injury” yesterday after admitting that taxpayers paid £15million for the privilege of handing a huge rail contract to a German firm.

Mail Online

• £15m consultancy fees on Government decision to give rail contract to German firm over Bombardier Consultant fees of £15million 'added insult to injury' over the Government's decision to award £1.4billion rail contract to a German company over British Bombardier, union chiefs have complained.
• Taking the car to Europe? It'll pay to fill up before you leave as pound weakens against euroThe weakness of the pound against the euro means that eight countries, including France, Italy and Portugal, have average petrol prices higher than in Britain.

The Mirror

• Voice of the MirrorTHE decision to hand a lucrative Government train contract to Germany grows more mysterious by the day. Ministers paid £15million for advice onwho should be awarded the work making Thameslink carriages.
• Nigel Clough and Derby County back campaign to save Bombardier DERBY County stars will show their solidarity with ­Bombardier train workers at the opening game of the season on Saturday.
• Vince Cable blasted for snubbing doomed Bombardier factory on Derby visit Vince Cable has been accused of “running scared” and “bottling it” after dodging furious workers at the doomed Bombardier train factory.

ATOC

• Nominations for 2011 National Cycle Rail Awards now open Schemes, projects and individuals that have improved or encouraged greater use of combined cycle and rail travel will be recognised at this year’s Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC)...

Bristol Live

• Bus routes expanded to create jobs FOUR bus routes serving Bristol and South Gloucestershire are to be expanded creating 20 new jobs.
• Bristol charity to get more adults back on bikesBRISTOL charity Life Cycle UK is to continue helping adults to get back in the saddle for everyday journeys with a two-year contract with the city council.

Derby Telegraph

• MP calls for Siemens to be excluded A TORY MP has called on the Government to reopen talks with Bombardier and exclude Siemens from the Thameslink contract in light of corruption claims.
• It is vital that this railway city becomes a part of HS2 KARL Marx once said that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy and the second as farce. He could have been referring to the previous and current governments' decisions to snub Derby-based Bombardier and award significant rail contracts to overseas bidders.
• Derby's leaders boycott 'talking shop' task force A NUMBER of city leaders are boycotting a Government task force set up to help Bombardier workers threatened with redundancy, Margaret Gildea was chosen to chair the Economic Response Task Force by Business Secretary Vince Cable. But Derby councillors and several influential business representatives say the two meetings of the group held so far have been pointless.
• City council considers next move as expert insists it can mount legal challenge over train-making deal A LEGAL expert at Derby City Council is exploring whether the authority will call for a judicial review into the decision not to award the £1.4 billion Thameslink contract to Bombardier.
• Time to tell us why your tender failed, Bombardier [letter]A GREAT deal has been written and spoken about the Bombardier crisis and we must all have sympathy with those whose future employment is threatened. But one or two aspects require further clarification.
• Why not ask Siemens to build the trains in Derby? [letter]WHY has no-one made the sensible suggestion yet? Surely the city of Derby should send a delegation to Germany (again!) but this time to meet senior executives at Siemens to persuade them to build the Thameslink trains in the UK. Siemens and Bombardier do co-operate at times, as they are doing on by sharing a massive train order from Deutsche Bahn.
• An Open Letter from Rams Boss [Nigel Clough]THE Government's decision to award the Thameslink project to Siemens instead of Bombardier is a potentially devastating blow for the community in Derbyshire and the UK rail industry as a whole.
• Rams' match backing for Thameslink campaign DERBY County Football Club has thrown its weight behind a campaign to get Government to reverse its decision over the £1.4 billion Thameslink train building contract.

Journal Live

• North East MPs back review of Siemens rail contract NORTH East MPs want ministers to review the award of a £1.4bn rail contract to German firm Siemens despite hundreds of regional jobs being at stake.
• North East MPs in warning over bus cuts CUTS to bus services could hit the country’s economic road to recovery, according to dozens of MPs.

London Evening Standard

• Don't take babies on 38C Tube, mothers toldParents are warned to keep babies off the Tube as temperatures soar in the capital
• Rail and flights chaos after burst water main triggers landslideThames Water bosses are under attack after a single burst water main paralysed rail and air travel across the South-East

Northern Echo

• Concern raised over road scheme A NEW road could have a detrimental effect on a historic area of Darlington, experts have warned.

Other Regional Press

• Time to help UK firms CONSTITUENTS have contacted me about the Tory-led Government’s decision not to award the contract for the Thameslink rolling stock to Bombardier, who build trains in Britain.
• MP: ’High speed trains would help our towns’ THE MP for South West Herts says HS2 will improve train services in Berkhamsted and Tring.
• Boris Johnson under fire on opposition to HS2 bid Furious business leaders today criticised Boris Johnson for trying to wreck plans for a £32 billion high-speed rail line through the West Midlands.
• Western Morning News commented Bike users pictured in new road safety messageArticle
• Best on the buses!A young driver who helps keep Glasgow™s public transport system on track has scooped a string of prizes at the Bus Driver of the Year Awards.

Campaign for Better Transport

• Get on board our Party Conference Campaign Bus! 02 Aug: We want to give bus passengers a platform to tell MPs exactly how important buses are to them. So we are taking a double decker campaign bus to the party conferences.  Get on board and have your voice heard! read more

Global Rail News

• Bombardier celebrates the opening of Gautrain Rapid Rail Link in JohannesburgBombardier Transportation today celebrated the opening of the extended first phase of the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link in Johannesburg, South Africa. The network now reaches from ...
• Britain™s newest train unveiled in BirminghamA £93m investment in 27 brand new class 172 diesel trains entering service in September will bring a range of benefits to London Midland customers on ...
• NXEA team wins prestigious awardNational Express East Anglia™s Train Presentation team has received a prestigious ˜Investors in People Silver Award™. The presentation of the award was made to the team ...
• RATP Group acquires Manchester Metrolink operatorRATP Dev, subsidiary of the RATP Group, acquired the operator of Manchester’s Metrolink from Stagecoach on 1 August 2011. Stagecoach Maetrolink Ltd is responsible for the ...
• ScotRail announces extra festival trainsEven more extra late night destinations are being introduced by ScotRail for this year™s Edinburgh festivals. The enhancements include services to Glasgow, Fife, Perth and North Berwick. ...
• First stage of Manchester “ Liverpool electrification completedNetwork Rail has completed the first stage of work to electrify the railway between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool Lime Street, following a £3m investment to rebuild ...
• Cameras to deter level crossing misuse in East AngliaCutting-edge camera technology has been introduced by Network Rail and the British Transport Police to crack down on level crossing law-breakers and change drivers™ behaviour across ...
• New high speed rail services to Deal & SandwichSoutheastern today confirmed that high speed services will start to operate from Deal and Sandwich “ thanks to the support of Kent County Council “ from ...
• London™s railwaysThere™s a lot going on in London™s railways at the moment. Network Rail is rebuilding several major stations, Thameslink is well underway, Crossrail is starting, and ...
• Eurocodes DecodedSwapping commas for decimal places, executing a structure rather than building it, and different concrete strengths for cylinders over cubes are just some of the new ...
• Royal RebuildYou have probably all seen the new Network Rail poster œNext Stop: Year 2186. The first time I saw it, I was on my way to ...
• Deutsche Bahn seeks ICE approvalDeutsche Bahn has submitted an application for fundamental approval of its ICE trains for the Channel Tunnel to the responsible safety authority, the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC). ...
• King™s Cross square revealedIn a major article, this month™s issue of the rail engineer refers to plans to open up the space in front of Kings Cross station currently ...
• Tracking success at the Network Rail Partnership AwardsThe Network Rail Partnership Awards moved from Birmingham to London this year. Some six hundred representatives of many of the company™s suppliers gathered for dinner in ...

Railnews

• French 'set to take over' Manchester Metrolink It's reported that the French operator RATP is poised to take over the Manchester Metrolink concession from Stagecoach. Although as yet there has been no official confirmation, none of those said to be involved have issued a formal denial that talks have been under way.

Aviation Industry

• Change at the top for Edinburgh AirportEdinburgh Airport has today announced that Kevin Brown, its current Managing Director, will be leaving the business...
• A Novel Route for HeathrowHeathrow has appointed Tony Parsons, one of the UK™s most popular fiction writers, as its writer-in-residence this summer with a brief to write a book capturing the many stories and emotions of Britain™s biggest airport...
• Thames airport plan slammed by local councilLeader of Medway Council calls it "the daftest in a long list of pie in the sky schemes"

Other News Sources

• Theresa Villiers’ suggestion that workers set to lose their jobs move to Mumbai adds insult to injury - Maria Eagle Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, responding to reports that Transport Minister Theresa Villiers MP has suggested that East Coast Rail call centre workers now facing redundancy move to India to find work, said:
• RMT slams government 'stitch-up' Rail union RMT accused the government today of adding "insult to injury" by rail union RMT after it admitted that it squandered £15 million of public money to fund consultants in the rail contract that was awarded to a German company.
• RMT warns that central London will be 'jammed solid' with unlicensed and dangerous rickshaws as we head towards OlympicsTAXI UNION RMT warned today that central London will be 'jammed solid' with unlicensed and uninsured rickshaws as we head towards the London Olympics with the authorities refusing to lift a finger to clampdown on the unregulated trade.
• ACE reiterates support for HS2The Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) has reaffirmed its support for High Speed 2, after the public consultation on the project ended on Friday.
• First step of Manchester-Liverpool rail electrification completeNetwork Rail has completed the first stage of work to electrify the railway between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool Lime Street, following a £3M investment to rebuild three bridges.
• Road freight industry paid £1.3bn more for fuel Road freight operators have had to find an additional £1.3 billion over a twelve-month period to cover the rising cost of fuel, according to figures from the Freight Transport Association's Cost Information Service. read more