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

Friday, 19 October 2012

BBC News

• Translink defends services after court criticism Bus and rail company Translink has defended its services after a lawyer claimed public transport failings made it difficult for a banned driver to travel to work.
• BA boss not hopeful over air taxThe head of British Airways has said there is no chance of Air Passenger Duty being scrapped on short-haul flights from Northern Ireland.
• New London train link for OxfordA new £130m London to Oxford rail link will be built with trains running on it by 2015.
• Islington 20mph limit approvedAll roads managed by Islington council in north London will become 20mph zones after the authority agrees the move.

Financial Times

• Transport: Outsiders capture big share of $11bn railway marketAt first glance, the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant appears to have hardly changed since its launch during Josef Stalin’s industrialisation drive
• New London-Oxford rail link approvedA route from Marylebone station, including a stretch of new track, is set to open in 2015 after ministers gave the green light to the £130m project
• Go-Ahead chief backs rail franchisingThe head of the UK™s biggest train operator by passenger numbers says the rail franchising process is not broken in spite of the West Coast mistakes

The Herald

• Crackdown on marine litterA CONCERTED bid to tackle marine litter is expected amid fears that failing to enforce the law is allowing people and com-panies to escape punishment for polluting Scots seas, costing the country £17 million a year.
• Campaigners lose fight against £400m Aberdeen bypassCampaigners against the controversial Aberdeen bypass have had their appeal rejected unanimously by the UK's Supreme Court.
• Costs mount after rail contract fiascoTaxpayers could be left with an even-bigger multimillion-pound bill for the West Coast main line fiasco than first feared, Labour claimed.
• UK loses cheapest pre-tax petrol labelUK drivers, enduring stubbornly high fuel prices, can no longer count on having Europe's cheapest

Edinburgh Evening News

• Speed cameras call over detour road crash fearsCALLS to install speed cameras on a residential road being used as a major diversion have been ruled out, despite fears drivers could cause a fatal crash.

Liverpool Echo

• Work on River Mersey super port Liverpool2 could begin in new yearWORK on the £300m Liverpool2 container terminal could begin as early as January.
• New-look Liverpool Central station gets ready to re-open to Northern Line passengersMERSEYRAIL’S Central station will fully reopen to all passengers at the start of next week after a £20m upgrade.

Liverpool Post

• Liverpool's new-look Central station to fully re-open after £20m upgradeMERSEYRAIL Northern Line passengers will be able to use Liverpool Central station for the first time in six months when a £20m refurbishment project is completed on Monday.

London Evening Standard

• Transport boss: Oxford Street double deckers will stay - Costs make West End business plea an impossibilty. London’s top public transport chief has dismissed calls to rid Oxford Street of its “wall of red double deckers” saying it would require two vast “unacceptable and desecrating” bus stations to be built in the heart of the West End.

Manchester Evening News

• West Coast franchise fiasco cost could rise above £40mThe cost of the West Coast Mainline fiasco could soar beyond the government's original £40m estimate, it is feared. Opposition MPs said there is a real threat of legal action by FirstGroup, which lost the line's contract in a dramatic government U-turn earlier this month.
• M60 and M56 motorways set for 24h closuresDrivers are being warned that two motorways will be shut in south Manchester for 24 hours next month as two new bridges are built

Northern Echo

• What next for Durham Tees Valley Airport? IN December last year, Prime Minister David Cameron called Durham Tees Valley Airport a vital transport link and said its long-term success was a question of œis it being invested in, is it being expanded, is it working well?

Sheffield Telegraph

• ENVIRONMENT AWARDS: Honours for rail station heroesJUST six years ago, Dronfield railway station was a mess. The neglected train stop, served by a skeleton rail service of up to five trains a day operating to a bizarre and historical timetable, had led to minimal usage.

The Press and Journal (Aberdeen)

• Judges clear road for bypass at last Five judges sitting at the UK Supreme Court have finally cleared the way for the Aberdeen bypass to be built “ and motorists could be using stretches of it long before the 2018 completion date.

Wolverhampton Express and Star

• Staffordshire railway station is to get £3m upgradeA £3 million upgrade of a Staffordshire train station used by two million passengers a year has begun. Network Rail announced today the start of the nine-month project to improve the 1960s-built station in Stafford.

Yorkshire Post

• Go-Ahead aiming to make £100m profits from its bus division Transport group Go-Ahead said yesterday it wants to make profits of £100m a year from running bus services in the UK.
• Britain is overtaken on cheapest pre-tax petrolUK drivers, enduring stubbornly high fuel prices, can no longer count on having Europe’s cheapest “pre-tax” petrol.

Bucks Free Press

• Wycombe-Oxford rail link approved HIGH Wycombe will be linked to Oxford by rail for the first time in decades after plans for a new line were given the go-ahead today.

Peterborough Telegraph

• Transport: Group promises better Fens railImprovements to rail transport in the Fens have been promised by a new community group.

Plymouth Herald

• New talks on improving London rail link approvedTRANSPORT Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has agreed to talks aimed at securing rail improvements between Plymouth and London facing delays after the recent franchise fiasco.
• New talks on improving London rail link approvedTRANSPORT Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has agreed to talks aimed at securing rail improvements between Plymouth and London facing delays after the recent franchise fiasco.

Other Regional Press

• HS2 consultation will not be re-run The transport secretary has ruled out re-staging the HS2 consultation, despite 1,100 answers being overlooked. In a private letter to Aylesbury MP David Lidington, Patrick Mcloughlin wrote that after looking through the overlooked answers it was agreed that they ’wouldn’t have made a difference’ to the decision to press ahead.
• Gatwick second runway: Groups mull over Airport’s announcement A parish council near Gatwick has reaffirmed its total opposition to a second runway at the airport, while the local enterprise partnership has supported yesterday’s announcement.
• Council needs to ˜step up™ to stationA rail campaigner has called on Lancashire County Council to do more to drive improvements at Preston’s train station.
• Drivers celebrate shorter journeys after Aberdeen bypass decisionDRIVERS were today celebrating how the Aberdeen bypass will slash car journey times.

Railnews

• Eurostar shrugs off pre-Olympic slump Eurostar is blaming a travel dip during the run-up to the Olympics and the weak Euro for a 5 per cent fall in sales revenue during the third quarter of 2012, but the company said bookings have 'bounced back' since the Games and that it intends to capitalise on the 'post-Olympic glow'. The company is also reporting that a £700 million investment in new, faster trains and a refurbishment of the existing fleet is on schedule for completion in 2015.

Aviation Industry

• MAG will make offer to buy StanstedManchester-based group admits it will join race for Essex airport
• MAG will make offer to buy StanstedManchester-based group admits it will join race for Essex airport
• Qatar's Dreamliner to fly to Heathrow from DecemberAirline's boss also warns of "catastrophic situation" if UK does not resolve its capacity crunch

Other News Sources

• Review of Shift Signaller Managers - Three Bridges, Network RailCircular No IR/571/12
• ˜Driverless™ Tube trains will not happen until 2020 at earliest, says Transport for LondonAt today™s meeting of the London Assembly Transport Committee, Mike Brown, Managing Director, London Underground and London Rail, Transport for London (TfL) said that ˜driverless trains™ will not run on London™s Tube network until 2020 at the earliest.
• Tunnelling brought to a halt on CrossrailCrossrail has confirmed it has stopped tunnelling on its second western machine, two weeks after CN revealed the first machine had been halted.
• £400m Aberdeen bypass overcomes latest legal hurdleA £400 million Aberdeen bypass has overcome its latest legal challenge and looks set to attract big-name bidders after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by a local group.