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

Friday, 11 November 2011

BBC News

• Petition against Bradford-on-Avon rail ticket office closure A petition with 1,200 signatures has been presented to Parliament in protest at the proposed closure of a Wiltshire railway station booking office.
• Arriva Trains Wales deal 'needs radical overhaul' [video]The former transport minister says a deal in which the Welsh Government gives £170m to rail company Arriva Trains Wales every year is flawed.
• Gosport to Fareham bus route 'will ease traffic' A £20m bus route linking Fareham and Gosport may only encourage a fraction of drivers from their cars, according to the councillor in charge of the project.
• Ministers in Dublin talks on A5The Irish government withdraws £400m funding for a major road upgrade in Northern Ireland.
• New masterplan for Port of LeithForth Ports joins forces with Scottish Enterprise and Edinburgh City Council to develop a new masterplan for the Port of Leith.
• Pressure mounts on cycle safetyCall for more to be done to make junctions safer for cyclists in London

Financial Times

• Chinese airlines to sue EU over emissionsChinese airlines are preparing to take Brussels to court over its plan to charge carriers for carbon emissions, an industry official has warned
• Union challenges Qantas in federal courtPilots fight regulators decision to halt industrial action

The Herald

• Sale of Edinburgh Airport beginsTHE starting gun on the sale of Edinburgh Airport has been fired with the Competition Commission announcing it had accepted undertakings provided by its owner, BAA.
• First superfast ferry due at port THE first of two 30,000-tonne ferries due to operate between Scotland and Northern Ireland “ doubling the number of seats on the route “ is due to arrive at a Scottish port tomorrow.
• Lottery jackpot winners pledge to keep Waverley at full steamTWO EuroMillions lottery winners from Ayrshire have pledged to help keep the Waverley paddle steamer afloat for another season by plugging any shortfall in its public funding campaign.

The Telegraph

• Motorists paying "excessive" green taxes It estimates that drivers paid the £31.5 billion raised from drivers in 2009 not only dwarfs the amount spent on roads but also the environmental cost of motoring.
• Rail passenger rights could disappear in bonfire of regulations Rail passengers could see penalty fares soar and their rights to compensation disappear under Government proposals to slash red tape. The vast array of rules governing the rights of those who travel by train have been included as candidates for the Coalition's “bonfire of regulations” by the Department for Transport.

Mail Online

• Rail workers ordered to learn German so they can safely operate new track equipment from overseasBut forcing engineers to work in a language they do not understand presents 'blindingly obvious' dangers to passenger safety, according to the rail workers' union.
• Every driver milked for £300-a-year as fuel tax is not NOT spent on our roadsFuel duty and road tax raise £31.5billion annually but only £13.4billion of this is reinvested in roads or in environmental measures.

The Mirror

• German is the language of the train if you want to work on the rails in Britain TESTING, testing, testing... eins, zwei, drei. Rail engineers learning to use new safety testing kit on our tracks now have to speak German too – and it’s not a simple case of one, two, three. Much of the high-tech equipment used to spot dangerous faults on our railways is now made in Germany.

Derby Telegraph

• Derby Telegraph commented Region's railway network will now be run from cityArticle
• Derby Telegraph commented MP arranges meeting over bus complaintsArticle

London Evening Standard

• TfL manager plunges to his death at HQ 'after hearing of redundancy'A senior manager plunged to his death from the top floor of Transport for London's new headquarters in front of horrified colleagues.
• Now Heathrow whistleblower disputes May's border claimsTheresa May was hit by new claims of flawed border security as a Heathrow whistleblower claimed that it was 'frightening' how many people could be wrongly gaining entry to the country

Manchester Evening News

• Ring and Ride services could be hit by strike actionPensioners and disabled people could be hit by a strike by drivers providing the door-to-door Ring and Ride bus service. Leaders of the Unite union say members will stage a walkout on Friday in a dispute over a pay freeze and a proposed restructure.
• Fire on train at Manchester Piccadilly causes rail delaysFire crews have tackled a fire onboard a train at Piccadilly station. The blaze broke out at the service on platform 14 at 5.55pm today. A GMFRS spokesman said there were no reports of any injuries.

Sheffield Telegraph

• Tow-away threat for vehiclesMOTORISTS who break parking rules in Sheffield risk having their car towed away.

Yorkshire Post

• Airport chiefs criticise passenger tax plansAIRPORT bosses have slammed Government proposals to raise passenger taxes and called on ministers to charge more at London terminals to “level the national playing field” on aviation.

Other Regional Press

• Rail relic will be restored A railway swing bridge that was built by engineer Robert Stephenson in 1850 could be restored to its former glory.

Bus and Coach.com

• Rural transport pilots in CambsThree pilot rural transport projects are to start in Cambridgeshire over the next three months.
• Arriva offers taster ticketsArriva Yorkshire has distributed 3,200 weekly travel vouchers, worth £50,000, to non bus users in the region.
• Newport attackers rewardA £5,000 reward has been put up by Newport Transport after its buses were attacked by youths throwing stones on two consecutive nights last week, leading to the suspension of services on both nights.
• Optare completes move out of CrossgatesWith Optare production having transferred to the company™s new factory at Sherburn-in-Elmet it has finally closed the gates at its old Crossgates works in Leeds.
• London spending well ahead of regionsSpending per head on transport in London in 2010-11 was £774, compared with just £285 in the West Midlands and the north of England according to the Passenger Transport Executive Group in an analysis of Treasury figures.
• Lancs switches-off timetable screens Bus stations across Lancashire will have their electronic timetable systems switched off in a bid to save cash.
• Scarborough completes first double-decksFollowing the successful introduction of production of the Alexander Dennis Enviro200 to Plaxton™s Scarborough factory in 2007, the first double-deck Enviro400s are now nearing completion.
• Colchester commuters PlusBus offerTo encourage Colchester train commuters to travel to the station by bus, the town™s three bus operators, First, Network Colchester and Hedingham Omnibuses, are taking part in a PlusBus promotion which offers a monthly bus ticket for £48, with validity from now until the end of January.
• Buses produce most profit for FirstAgainst a tough economic background revenue at FirstGroup for the six months to 30 September was £3,168.
• Centro plans BRT Sprint serviceCentro, the West Midlands PTE, expects next month to have completed its business case for an £11million 12-mile-long BRT-style Sprint service between Five Ways in Birmingham and Walsall.

Global Rail News

• Crossrail™s Royal Oak PortalWritten by Grahame Taylor for the rail engineer There are always developments going on beside the railway. Many go un-noticed. If you travel by train from ...
• Report offers ˜unenthusiasitc™ approach to HS2, Council saysWarwickshire County Council has responded to the report of the Transport Select Committee on high speed rail. Cllr Bob Stevens, Deputy Leader of Warwickshire County Council, said: œI ...
• Transport conference targets boost to European economyRepresentatives from more than 20 European cities are visiting the West Midlands this week as part of an international conference highlighting how public transport can drive ...
• Siemens Eurosprinter locomotives receive ˜homologation™ for BelgiumThe HLE 18 multi-system locomotive from the Siemens Eurosprinter family has received homologation for Belgium. The HLE 18 is manufactured at the Siemens plant in Munich-Allach ...
• Knorr-Bremse wins performance Awards from SiemensKnorr-Bremse operations in the UK have won three prestigious Awards from Siemens for outstanding service and performance. The awards were presented at the recent Siemens Rail ...
• Skanska awarded railway contract in Czech RepublicSkanska has been awarded a contract to modernise the railway junction in Plzen™s 3rd transit corridor, in the Czech Republic. The contract amounts to CZK 942m, ...
• Christmas shopping trains to Manchester and ChesterChristmas shoppers living in London and the South East will have the opportunity to purchase their gifts elsewhere this year as Virgin Trains prepares to run ...
• Community rail “ small lines, big growthAt a reception at the House of Commons on Wednesday transport minister Theresa Villiers welcomed the work of ACoRP and community rail partnerships around the country ...
• Control of East Midlands rail network devolved from London to DerbyOn Monday 14 November, full control of the rail network in the East Midlands will be devolved from London to Derby, with a new route managing ...
• NXEA partnership delivers new shelter for IngatestoneNational Express East Anglia and the Anglo-European school in Ingatestone have officially unveiled a smart new waiting shelter at Ingatestone station, Essex. The idea for the ...
• Longer and heavier lorries may ˜seriously impact rail markets™The introduction of Longer and Heavier lorries (LHVs) up to 25.25m long across Europe would ‘undermine the objectives of the European Commission™s 2011 Transport White Paper’, ...
• Europe needs ˜consistent & connected™ high speed rail networkEuropean and national politicians need to avoid building a ‘Two(high)Speed’ Europe. This was the main message delivered at the event ‘Putting European high speed rail on the ...
• Momentum builds for Infrarail 2012Exhibitor numbers are building for Infrarail 2012, the essential event for everyone involved in railway infrastructure. Taking place in Hall 3 at the UK™s National Exhibition ...

Aviation Industry

• BAA statement in response to the CAA Annual Passenger SurveyœBAA welcomes the findings of the CAA Annual Passenger Survey which shows that 36% of the passengers who used Heathrow last year were transfer passengers.
• A striking resemblancePeter Dunkin, aviation advisor and executive coach, finds a few uncanny similarities between Qantas™ current troubles and BA™s strike-strewn recent past
• The interview: Virgin Atlantic's Paul WaitAll about corporate route deals, the buyer-TMC-airline dynamic and why the business travel community should stop talking itself down

Green Miscellany

• Self-defence techniques for cyclists While it™s understandable that cyclists today feel conditions on the road can only improve, on this day 110 years ago the risk posed by ˜modern-day highwaymen™ was such that cyclists were being advised to use the late-nineteenth-century version of a super soaker water pistol to startle their attacker.read more
• Top ten winter driving tips “ preparing your car for winter In anticipation of a cold winter, a simple guide to preparing cars for winter has been produced by the Environmental Transport Association (ETA).read more

Other News Sources

• Jaguar Land Rover to create over 1,000 jobsLuxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India's Tata Motors, has announced plans to create more than 1,000 jobs at a plant near Birmingham, in a boost for Britain's struggling economy.
• New O-licensing consultation A second round of consultation into the first ever set of statutory directions and guidance notes has begun in order that they match new O-licensing rules starting in December.
• Tesco train service will remove 40,000 truck journey's annuallyTesco has launched a new rail freight service from Daventry to Thurrock which it says will help remove 40,000 lorries from the roads each year.
• Germany and Poland plan cross-border tram linkA new study has said that a cross border tram link between the German city of Frankfurt and the Polish city of Slubice would cost around €10.5M (£9M).
• Labour attack rail ticket office closuresGovernment proposals will lead to the closure of 675 train station ticket offices across the country, the Commons has heard.
• Rail staff told to take German lessons to operate track equipmentRAIL UNION RMT revealed today that rail workers are being told to take German lessons as part of their training course for operating new track equipment.