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

Friday, 14 October 2011

BBC News

• Cosford railway station shut during £2.1m scheme work A Shropshire railway station is due to close for more than four months while it is rebuilt in a £2.1m project.
• Oxfordshire bus service subsidies cut Subsidies to bus services in Oxfordshire are to be cut by £300,000 a year as the county council tries to save £119m by 2015.
• Lowestoft's £6.25m for transport but no third road bridge Lowestoft businesses are welcoming a new £6.25m transport package, but say a third water crossing is still needed.
• Dorset school buses left pupils 'stranded at stops' Children being stranded at bus stops is among a series of problems which followed changes to Dorset's school bus services, a report has revealed.
• Sefton Council approves plan to avoid snow chaos repeat Transport networks faced severe disruption as roads and pavements became impassable due to snow and ice.
• SPT discusses cutting up to 65 jobs from Glasgow Subway Proposals which could lead to the loss of up to 65 jobs from the Glasgow Subway system will be discussed later.
• Borders MP calls for train wi-fiBorders MP Michael Moore calls on Scotland's Transport Minister Keith Brown to ensure free w-fi connections in trains travelling on the new Borders rail line.
• HS2 rail link 'is white elephant'A proposed £32bn national high-speed rail link was described as a "white elephant" during an MPs' debate.
• Airports rapped after queue checkTwo London airports' measurement of security queues is called into question after an independent audit revealed longer queues then previously reported.

Department for Transport

• Transport Statistics: Reported Road Casualties English Local Authority Tables: 2010The Department for Transport on Thursday 13th October published the following Transport Statistics
• TRAFFIC SIGNS UPDATED, CLUTTER AND RED TAPE REDUCED IN BIGGEST SIGNS REVIEW IN 40 YEARSUnnecessary Whitehall bureaucracy will be tackled and costs for councils reduced following the biggest review into Britain's traffic signing system for 40 years, announced today by Transport Minister Norman Baker.

Financial Times

• Pratt to buy Rolls-Royce out of ventureThe deal comes as both companies also agreed to form a new partnership to develop engine technology for future single-aisle aircraft

The Guardian

• Quiz: The real meaning of road signs Government plans will remove some UK roads signs and improve others. But what are your favourite funny signs?

The Herald

• Tram company redundancy costs expected to top £2mNINE of the 29 staff left at Edinburgh™s tram delivery firm, Tie, are due to take voluntary redundancy within four weeks, with redundancy costs topping £2 million.

Mail Online

• Road signs that make no sense and are unnecessary to be removedThe new signs will include one warning lorry drivers of unsuitable roads to help prevent truckers slavishly following sat nav systems from getting stuck on the wrong road.

Birmingham Mail

• Aston Transport museum's final open dayBIRMINGHAM’S popular transport museum will close for possibly the final time at the end of this month.

Birmingham Post

• MP Godsiff comes out against HS2 plansBirmingham MP Roger Godsiff has broken ranks with colleagues to come out against plans for a new high speed rail line linking the West Midlands with London and the north.

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• Bradford grit stocks at a record high Bradford™s highways chiefs are confident they can keep traffic flowing this winter as they prepare for a dry run this weekend using the district™s fleet of 30 gritters.

Daily Post (North Wales)

• PM David Cameron visits Airbus Broughton to open £400m wing factoryPRIME Minister David Cameron has officially opened the new factory at Airbus Broughton this afternoon.

Derby Telegraph

• Boss of major rail project hopes to keep work in UK and 'mobilise' the industryTHE boss of a company behind a multi-billion pound UK rail project, which it is hoped could secure the future of train-maker Bombardier, has said he hoped a large proportion of the work could be done in the UK.

Manchester Evening News

• Passengers hit as £3.8m engineering work closes rail line to Southport for a week The line from Southport to Wigan and Bolton will shut next Saturday “ October 22 “ for a £3.8m renewal project. Replacement buses will be laid on until the works are finished, expected to be on October 30.

Metro

• Ryanair plans to scrap toilets to make room for more passengers on flightsRyanair officials want to remove two or three toilets on each of the budget airline's planes to make room for up to six extra seats and cut costs.

The York Press

• MP calls for extra powers on rural buses YORK Outer MP Julian Sturdy has called for local authorities to have more powers to help rural bus services.
• Popular locomotives go side by side at National Railway Museum THIS is the first glimpse of two locomotives side by side in a rare photo opportunity at York™s National Railway Museum.

Yorkshire Post

• Rail ticket barriers row reaches CommonsAN ONGOING row over the installation of ticket barriers at Sheffield railway station, which would prevent non-passengers from using the station footbridge, was yesterday raised in Parliament.

Other Regional Press

• Train makers lobby MPs over deal Workers from the Bombardier factory in Derby faced with job losses have lobbied MPs in London as part of a campaign to persuade the Government to change its mind over the "disastrous" decision to award a lucrative train-building contract to a German firm.
• Coventry and Warwickshire anti-HS2 MPs hoping to have say in Commons debate todayCOVENTRY and Warwickshire MPs who are fighting the government’s high-speed rail plans are hoping to have their say in a major Commons debate today.
• Chiltern Railways chairman to give HS2 talk in LeamingtonTHE chairman of Chiltern Railways Adrian Shooter will be giving a talk on HS2 later this month.

Bus and Coach.com

• New role for HakanHAKAN KARLSSON, president of Volvo Bus Corporation, will become chairman of Volvo Aero, Volvo Buses and Volvo Penta and of a new business area, Governmental Sales under a major reorganisation of the Volvo Trucks business which comes in to effect on 1 January.
• Spinks rejoins OptareROY SPINK (58) has rejoined Optare as quality and continuous improvement director, reporting to chief operating officer, GLENN SAINT.
• Norfolk consults on cutsNorfolk county council is consulting with residents on proposed cuts to 17 bus services as it reduces its transport budget by £500,000.
• Bluebird upgrades with wi-fi coachesNine new Plaxton-bodied Volvo B9Rs are running on the trunk Stagecoach Bluebird service between Aberdeen and Inverness.
• Chinese deckers for LondonLondon sightseeing operator Big Bus Tours has ordered 34 open-top double-deck tour buses from Chinese builder Anhui Ankai Automobile Co.
• First Borismaster due in DecemberThe first Borismaster, the new bus for London, is due to be completed by Wrightbus next month, and will be delivered to London in December, Leon Daniels, managing director of surface transport at Transport for London, told the London Assembly transport committee this week.
• Artic conversions to save London £7.4mDespite having to run almost 150 extra buses with a concomitant increase in the number of drivers, Transport for London says that the extra annual cost of operating the 12 services being converted from articulated to double-deck operation is just £302,000, an increase of 0.

Campaign for Better Transport

• New figures reveal cuts to 1 in 5 council bus services 13 October: We have been busy collecting data on local authority bus cut decisions, using the Freedom of Information Act, and we can reveal that council cuts to bus budgets totalling £36m have resulted in more than 1000 (1114) service cuts. read more
• Will ministers pave over the site of the Battle of Hastings?13 October: Evidence from a new book claims that a proposed bypass in Sussex would cut through the site of England's most historic battle. read more

Aviation Industry

• Ryanair illegal boarding pass ruling overturnedA £40/€40 boarding pass fee charged by Ryanair has been deemed legal by a Spanish court
• Gatwick covets œLondon™s airport of choice crownGatwick Airport aims to be serving 40 million passengers a year by 2020, nearly 10 million more than in recent years
• Business œdragged down by APDBusinesses flying from London™s airports shelled out more than £125 million on APD last year
• Industrial action œhurting QantasThe Australian carrier has been forced to ground planes and cancel flights

Green Miscellany

• Steel yourself for puncture-proof bicycle tyres The industrial designer, artist and architect, Ron Arad has re-interpreted the bicycle wheel in his medium of choice, steel. read more
• Modular design is three bicycles in one The Modus is an open-frame bicycle designed to receive a variety of clipped-in, purpose-built accessories including ˜a sleek briefcase for your everyday commute, a boom box for tunes while you ride, a lock or a battery pack to drive the bike in electric mode™.read more