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

Saturday, 06 October 2012

BBC News

• RH Transport: Oxfordshire pupils hit as bus operator folds Hundreds of pupils in Oxfordshire had to find alternative transport to school after a bus and coach operator went into administration.
• Driverless Nissan can park itselfAn electric car able to park itself and come to the driver when
• PM attacked on rail and aviationTransport is a key issue for the South East but politicians are divided on which is the best way forward for rail and aviation policy.
• Cameron 'angry' over rail errorsDavid Cameron says he is
• VIDEO: Rail fares 'not value for money'London rail commuters say they are not getting value for money as the government is told to stop
• Faulty seats ground US flightsAmerican Airlines cancels 94 flights as it works to fix passenger seats that could come loose during flight.
• Indian airline extends shutdownIndia's cash-strapped Kingfisher airline grounds its fleet for a further week as talks with workers protesting against months of unpaid wages fail.
• West Coast bid mistakes emergeThe BBC learns more details of mistakes made by the Department for Transport that led to the collapse of First Group's bid for the West Coast mainline.
• Electric cars 'pose green threat'Electric cars might pollute much more than petrol or diesel powered cars, according to a report.
• West Coast Main Line: Civil servant Kate Mingay speaks out One of the civil servants suspended over flaws in the competition for the West Coast Main Line franchise criticises the Department for Transport.

Financial Times

• British PM pressed to veto BAE and EADS dealCaucus of Conservative parliamentarians insists David Cameron should only support the deal if the combined group does not have any state shareholdings
• Kingfisher lenders release funds for wagesMoney released from frozen bank accounts will be used to cover two months of salaries, but may not be enough to persuade workers back to work
• India takes first step to shut KingfisherAirline, which recently stopped flying after workers went on strike, receives a 15-day notice to explain why its permit should not be suspended
• Rail still uses subsidies despite privatisationSeven franchises were in ˜revenue support™ last year despite the hope that privatisation would transfer the financial risk from the taxpayer to the private sector
• Civil servants angry at rail ˜scapegoating™Ministers are accused of leaving mandarins ˜angry and demotivated™ with public criticism of the civil service and its role in the rail franchise fiasco
• Off the rails when the figures don™t add upDenial isn™t helpful. We need to accept that modern life is full of mathematical, spreadsheet and programming errors, writes Tim Harford
• No First-class seating on this rattling trainWe should not look for conspiracies when events can be explained by cock-up and the Transport department has plenty of form here
• West Coast debacle throws concerns on HS2A group of MPs are set to ask the prime minister to release an assessment by the government™s Major Projects Authority into the proposed high-speed link

The Guardian

• 60+ Oyster card extends free public transport to thousands of Londoners A pledge by mayor Boris Johnson means more over-60s will be able to save about £2,000 a year on train, bus and boat fares
• Trouble on the line: what caused the train franchise fiasco? Andrew Martin grew up in a railway world. His father worked at 'head office'; they holidayed with the British Rail Touring Club. So what does he make of the franchise fiasco?
• West coast mainline row: civil servant hits out at Department for TransportKate Mingay, one of three suspended officials, says department has portrayed her role inaccuratelyThe row over the scapegoating of civil servants in the west coast rail franchising fiasco has intensified as one of the three suspended officials hit out at her own department for creating a

The Scotsman

• Air passengers face more add-on charges as airline introduces fee for hand-luggagePASSENGERS on budget airlines face yet more add-on charges, after a carrier introduced fees for any hand luggage bigger than a laptop case.

The Telegraph

• Taxpayers give train firms half a billion a year to top-up profitsTaxpayers are handing almost half a billion pounds in subsidies to profit-making train operators.
• West Coast fiasco: rail franchise is broken, says architect of privatisationWest Coast fiasco: Architects of rail privatisation in the 1990s say system is

The Mirror

• Thameslink stink: Rethink plea on Government deal that cost 1,400 jobs at Britain’s last train makers Campaigners for Bombardier want a fresh look at whether the Government blundered over awarding the Thameslink deal to a German firm

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• Northern Rail starts crackdown on yobs and vandals on Bradford's railways A major crackdown on crime and yobbish behaviour on the district™s railways is under way as police released images of an œaggressive train passenger who smashed the glass door of a ticket gate at Bradford Interchange.

Derby Telegraph

• Euro MP calls for review of rail contract decisionA EURO MP has become the latest to demand the Government looks again at its decision not to award Derby train-maker Bombardier a lucrative contract following the recent furore over its handling of the bidding process for the West Coast Main Line rail franchise.
• Chris Williamson: Cameron should carry the can for rail contract fiascoANY doubts over Labour questioning this Government’s dubious process for awarding rail contracts have surely evaporated following this week’s revelations about the West Coast Main Line fiasco.

Journal Live

• Newcastle, Edinburgh and York in talks over radical rail schemeNEWCASTLE should get a key role in running East Coast train services under radical proposals being developed by the leader of the city’s council.

Liverpool Post

• The Royal Daffodil to leave Mersey ferry fleetONE of the world famous Mersey Ferries will be withdrawn and services altered in drastic action to stem £1m annual losses by the service.

London Evening Standard

• Private train operators getting millions of pounds in taxpayer hand-outsMillions of pounds in "taxpayer bailouts" are being paid to the private train operators, it was revealed today.

The York Press

• Big bus changes in York PASSENGERS are being warned of a series of changes to services run by York™s biggest bus operator from Sunday.

Wolverhampton Express and Star

• MPs lead calls to re-visit HS2 plans The business case for a controversial high-speed rail line through the West Midlands should be re-examined after the the new franchise for the West Coast Main Line was scrapped, MPs and a council leader have said.

Daventry Express

• Cyberbuses and parking charges are two options for DaventryA NEW strategy is trying to set out the route for better transport in Daventry.

Other Regional Press

• Bluebell line's saviour had a life in railwaysBernard Holden, who has died aged 104, spent a life connected to the railways. He was a manager with Southern Railways and later British Railways. He also worked on railways during the Burma campaign in the Second World War and – in more peaceful times – he helped save the Bluebell Railway, a heritage steam line in Sussex.
• M62 improvements, road cash and train line upgrades all on Calderdale Council radar as part of £1bn West Yorkshire transport planA HUGE project to improve transport links in and out of Calderdale is moving ahead.

Global Rail News

• Trains named after charity™s founderThe founder of helpline charity Samaritans has had three trains named in his memory. Virgin Trains, London Midland, Direct Rail Services Limited (DRS) and Network Rail came together to honour Samaritans founder The Reverend Dr Chad Varah, CH, CBE, who died in 2007. His daughter, Felicity Varah Harding, unveiled three trains, a Virgin Pendolino 390157 [...]
• Pendolinos undergo major bogie overhaulBogies have featured a few times in the rail engineer recently. There were two articles on bogie production at the Siemens factory in Graz (issues 90 and 91, April and May 2012), and bogies and wheelsets featured in a two part article by Stuart Marsh (issues 93 and 94, July and August 2012). However, until [...]
• Bringing earthworks under controlAs a railway civil engineer, one of my greatest concerns related to the condition of the earthworks on my patch. A failure of an embankment or cutting slope could cause severe risks to the safety and operational integrity of the railway under my care. For engineers on the UK rail system, this is probably a [...]
• Franks to succeed Fearn as Irish Rail CEODavid Franks will take over as chief executive of Irish Rail when current boss Dick Fearn steps down next year. Iarnród Éireann has announced that David Franks will become the new chief executive of the rail company in February 2013 when Fearn retires at the end of his seven-year contract. Franks, 55, has railway management [...]

Railnews

• Suspended West Coast civil servant criticises DfT One of the civil servants who has been suspended by the DfT following the collapse of the West Coast franchise award to FirstGroup has hit out at the Department. In a remarkable development, Kate Mingay has blamed the DfT for 'complete inaccuracies' in the way her responsibilities had been described.
• PM 'extremely angry' about West Coast crisis The Prime Minister said he is 'extremely angry and apologetic' about the crisis which has prevented FirstGroup taking over the Intercity West Coast franchise on 9 December. David Cameron also vowed that those responsible for the miscalculations at the DfT will be 'held to account'.

Aviation Industry

• Virgin Atlantic's Wait to become GTMC chief executiveGuild's new boss will take over in January after 13 years with airline

Other News Sources

• Huppert calls on Cameron to act over cycle safety MP Julian Huppert has called on the Prime Minister to personally examine proposals designed to cut the death toll of cyclists on Britain™s roads.