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

Friday, 28 December 2012

Cogitamus

• The TransportInfo team would like to wish all of you the very best for the season! We will be taking a little break over the holidays.TransportInfo will not be updated on 24, 25, 26 and 31 December and also on 1 January 2013. Well, that's unless something epoch making happens and we can't stop ourselves... Thank you for your continued interest and support.

BBC News

• Warehouse blaze closed rail lineThirty firefighters were involved in tackling a warehouse blaze which led to the closure of a rail line in Paisley.
• Wet weather affects rail and roadsWet and stormy weather continues to affect rail and road travel across the UK, with a school fire in Dorset thought to have been started by lightning.
• Road safety cuts 'catastrophic'Spending cuts by the government and local councils are putting more lives at risk on the roads, a safety campaigner says.
• Delays as woman killed by trainTrain services are affected after a woman is struck and killed on the line in Aberdeenshire.
• Union consults over rail disputeRailway signal workers in Scotland are being consulted on escalating a long-running dispute over shift patterns.
• Road upgrade call follows deathA Donegal councillor has called for the Lifford to Stranorlar road to be made safer after a 26-year-old man lost his life in a crash there on Christmas Day.
• VIDEO: Major train delays at PaddingtonRail services in and out of Paddington were severely disrupted on Thursday morning after engineering work overran.
• Rail services face major delaysTrains through Birmingham International station are delayed by up to 90 minutes after signalling problems.
• Cyclist challenges MP to commuteA cyclist who was thrown off his bike twice in the space of three months challenges a local MP to join him on part of his commute.

The Herald

• Network Rail's purchase of cheap parts causing delaysPASSENGERS travelling between Scotland and London will continue to face delays because Network Rail (NR) used cheap, unreliable parts when upgrading the UK's busiest rail routes, warns a hard-hitting industry report.

The Independent

• Get off the train or we™re not leaving, passengers toldHundreds of thousands of rail passengers across the UK found their post-Christmas travel plans wrecked by a combination of foul weather and incompetence.Related Stories2012 set to be the wettest year on recordDownpours make 2012 England™s wettest year on record2012 'set to be the wettest year on record'Boys killed in M6 crash were 'happy and joyous'Attacks prompt witness protection rethink

The Observer

• Girls aged 7 and 10 killed in Norfolk car crashTwo children die after accident on A47 near Wisbech while two adults and third child are injuredTwo girls aged seven and 10 have been killed in a car crash on Thursday night, police said.The children were in a car along with two adults and another child which crashed on the A47 near Wisbech at 6.40pm, Norfolk police said.All five occupants of the black Ford Focus were taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, where the girls died from their injuries.The other three occupants of the car remain in hospital, although police said their injuries are not believed to be serious.Norfolk po...

The Telegraph

• Airline pilots falling asleep in cockpit because of fatiguePilots have been falling asleep in the cockpit because of shift patterns which can see them at the controls of an aircraft 23 hours after waking up, a study has found.

Mail Online

• Police to put up huge fences at scenes of motorway crashes to stop rubberneckers causing traffic jamsThe Government has purchased 3,000 screens to prevent curious motorists from staring at motorway accident scenes. The purchase of the two metre high screens cost £2.3 million.
• Stranded on the road to nowhereIn the event of a fatal accident the emergency services must be given room to do their job. But patience begins to wear thin when the road remains closed for hours on end for no good reason.
• Around 150 passengers hit by norovirus on Queen Mary 2 during luxury Christmas cruiseAround 200 of the 2,600 holidaymakers on Cunard’s flagship £550million ship have been reportedly taken ill by the infectious norovirus.
• Girls aged 7 and 10 killed as car careers off road in latest Christmas tragedyThe car, which was also carrying two adults and another child, crashed on the busy A47, pictured, near Wisbech, near Kings Lynn around 6.40pm, Norfolk Police said last night.

The Mirror

• Ozzy Airborne: Bid to rename Birmingham Airport after Black Sabbath frontmanCouncil chiefs are considering following in the footsteps of ­Liverpool and Belfast airports by honouring a hometown star

Bristol Live

• The Bristol Post published Trains back on as rail repairs finished earlyArticle
• The Bristol Post published LIFE IN THE SLOW LANEPLANS to bring in a 20mph speed limit on Bristol's residential roads will be the biggest move to improve health in the city in...

Daily Post (North Wales)

• Rogue foreign truckers use magnets to tamper with tachographs on A55ROGUE foreign truckers on the A55 continue to risk lives by using electromagnets to tamper with tachographs – leading to calls to jail all offenders.

London Evening Standard

• Girls, seven and 10, die in crashA police investigation is under way into a fatal car crash that killed two girls aged seven and 10.

Manchester Evening News

• Consultation on Manchester Airport Relief Road asks: Have you had a sex change?People living in Manchester, Stockport and Cheshire East have been invited to fill in a questionnaire on the proposed 10km Manchester Airport Relief Road. But the second half of the survey consists of a series of personal questions, including whether their birth gender is different to their current gender.

The York Press

• Old railway buildings cleared in preparation for York Central redevelopment GOING, going, gone¦ Another piece of York™s railway heritage bites the dust .. and Press reader Nathan Reynolds was on hand to record it.

Wolverhampton Express and Star

• Action to put brakes on cars near schools in StaffordshireDrivers will be forced to slow down outside schools in Staffordshire, with new 20mph zones to be introduced to crack down on speeding motorists.

Crewe Chronicle

• UK & World News: DVLA staff to strike over closuresWorkers at dozens of Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) offices are staging a 24-hour strike in a dispute over closures and job losses.

Peterborough Telegraph

• Girl saved by car seat - fire chiefsA four-year-old girl would have been killed in a road crash near Peterborough were in not for the child seat she was sat in, fire chiefs have said.

The Shields Gazette

• Drivers warned to take notice of flood signsDRIVERS in South Tyneside are being warned to take notice of warning signs on one of the borough’s flood-hit roads.

Other Regional Press

• Rail track due to reopen a week after more flooding brings travel chaos to Mid Devon TRAIN passengers heading west for Christmas were forced to change their plans after a busy rail junction flooded near Tiverton.
• Leicester Mercury published Derailed freight train blocks lines between Loughborough and...A freight train carrying thousands of tonnes of quarry stone derailed yesterday, blocking two lines.
• The Citizen published ...and we're told more is on the wayROADS were left impassable, homes cut off and horses rescued lakes in the post-Christmas deluge.
• Western Morning News published Workmen go underground to cut delaysArticle
• Hampshire to get £6.1m extra for road repairsMORE than £6m of extra funding is to be received from government over the next two years to improve the county’s roads.
• Five judicial reviews into HS2 have endedFIVE judicial reviews into HS2 have now ended as figures emerged showing peak-time trains on the existing London-Coventry line are half empty.
• Pregnant bus crash victim to sue for nearly £1 millionA MUM who survived a road crash while heavily pregnant plans to sue bus firm Stagecoach for nearly £1 million.
• Woman dies after being hit by trainA WOMAN has died after she was struck by a train in the North-east.

International Herald Tribune

• Car Factories Offer Hope for Spanish Industry and WorkersWith labor costs so low, Spain is attracting car manufacturers that see a large competitive advantage in producing there rather than in other European countries.

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• Controversial St Albans rail freight terminal plans given green lightPlans to build a new rail freight terminal near St Albans have been approved by the government.The proposed development at Radlett had been vetoed by local councillors, who were concerned it would have a detrimental impact on greenbelt land.However, communities secretary Eric Pickles revealed that the terminal will be built subject to agreement of the developers' financial contributions, BBC News reports.St Albans Council originally dismissed the plans in 2009, but it seems the project will now go ahead following a lengthy appeal process.MP Anne Main said she was "devastated&a...

Global Rail News

• Eurotunnel publishes 2014 Network StatementEurotunnel has published its Network Statement – the network reference document for Channel Tunnel access conditions. The Network Statement sets out the access conditions for the Channel Tunnel in 2014 for railway operators, providing them with everything they need to prepare their own transport services. Prepared following consultation with railway operators and trade associations (SNCF, [...]
• Rail review of the yearA look at some of the biggest, strangest and most extraordinary rail stories of 2012. HS2 approved High Speed Two (HS2), the proposed high-speed rail line linking London and Birmingham, was approved by ministers in January. The then Transport Secretary Justine Greening said the first phase of the project could be complete by 2026. The controversial project, [...]

Transport for London

• New Year fares on TfL services come into effect from Wednesday 2 January 2013Overall fares rise kept as low as possible at one per cent above inflation (4.2 per cent) for 2013.

Other News Sources

• Railway signal workers in Hogmanay strike over shift disputeThe RMT union has been trying to negotiate 12-hour shifts with Network Rail.