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

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

BBC News

• Helicopter crash: Two dead after Vauxhall, London Two people have died after a helicopter crashed into a crane at a building site in central London in misty conditions, police have said.
• MPs took evidence on the UK's airport capacity on 14 January 2013. The session started with MPs questioning representatives of the Confederation of British Industry, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Institute of Directors, London First and the City of London Corporation.
• Top Japan airlines ground Boeing 787s after emergency Japan's two main airlines have grounded their Boeing 787 Dreamliners after one was forced to make an emergency landing because of battery problems.
• Rail firm 'let passengers down'The head of London Midland trains says he is
• First NI motorway service stationsPlanning permission to build the the first motorway service stations in Northern Ireland are given the go-ahead.
• Trolleybus plan congestion riskTransport chiefs behind Leeds' planned trolleybus system say it may increase congestion in parts of the city.
• BA discriminated against ChristianA British Airways employee from London suffered discrimination at work over her Christian beliefs, the European Court of Human Rights rules.
• Renault to cut 7,500 French jobsRenault is to cut about 7,500 jobs in France by 2016 as the carmaker continues to struggle with falling sales and profits.

Financial Times

• Japan™s airlines ground Dreamliner fleetsAircraft already faces safety review by US Federal Aviation Administration after fire broke out in a battery on a 787 operated by Japan Airlines
• Airlines sued over Illinois tax ˜sham™ claimsUnited and American are accused by the Regional Transportation agency of avoiding $300m in taxes by ˜accepting™ jet fuel via offices in a small town
• Air Berlin to cut jobs and downsize fleetGerman low-cost carrier to lay off 900 staff, or 10% of its workforce, as part of turnround plan led by new chief executive, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer

The Guardian

• 787 emergency landing: ANA grounds entire Boeing Dreamliner fleetPlane makes emergency landing at Takamatsu airport, western Japan, in latest safety scare for troubled new aircraftJapan's largest airline, ANA, and it competitor JAL have grounded their entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners after an emergency landing due to smoke in the cockpit “ the most dramatic of a spate of incidents involving the troubled aircraft over the past week and since its inception.All Nippon Airways said the plane's eight crew and all 129 passengers had evacuated safely on inflatable slides. Instruments in the cockpit indicated there had been a battery malfunction and the pilot...

The Herald

• Number of fines suggests city's bus lane system, not drivers, in the wrong AS one of the 482 "criminals" who abuse the bus lane system in Glasgow each day I was hardly surprised to read your report ("£3.8m in bus lane fines for drivers in Glasgow", The Herald, January 14).

The Scotsman

• KLM tops poll for best airline food KLM, which claims to be Scotland’s biggest long-haul carrier, has been voted by passengers as serving the best food in a poll by Edinburgh-based flight comparison website Skyscanner.

The Telegraph

• Japanese airlines ground Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet after emergency landing Japan's two biggest airlines have grounded all their Dreamliner 787s after an All Nippon Airways flight was forced into an emergency landing.
• Heathrow squatters claim moving them on would violate right to a family life A group of squatters occupying land earmarked for the likely route of the Heathrow third runway are claiming moving them on would violate their human right to a family life.

Daily Express

• Heathrow lifted by record trafficRISING transatlantic traffic raised passenger numbers travelling through Heathrow airport to record levels last year, just short of 70million.

Mail Online

• Detroit Electric Model D: Abandoned for gas guzzlers, the amazing 103 year old electric carThe 1910 Detroit Electric Model D has a range of 100 miles and can reach 25mph - but was abandoned in favour of petrol cars.
• Nadia Eweida: Christian British Airways employee wins landmark case after ECHR finds she suffered discrimination over silver crossNadia Eweida, 60, suffered discrimination at work over her beliefs, after the airline said the religious item was in breach of its company uniform code, judges in Strasbourg have ruled.

The Mirror

• Off the rails: Cleaner steals train and crashes it into a block of flatsThe thief, who was badly hurt in the crash, took it from the depot where she was working

Network Rail

• Join as apprentice to earn your degree, says Network Rail chief

Derby Telegraph

• Chris Williamson: The Transport Secretary should step in to halt rail contract, says MPI SEE that Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin told the Derby Telegraph that Bombardier has a future here (January 12). I hope he is right.

Journal Live

• Wooler regeneration group backs campaign to save threatened bus routeA CAMPAIGN to save a cherished Northumberland bus service from being axed has won support from a rural regeneration organisation.

London Evening Standard

• Woman steals train and crashes it into building A woman stole an empty commuter train from a depot today and drove it to a suburb of Stockholm where it derailed and slammed into an apartment building.
• BA worker wins case over crucifixA British Airways worker who was forced out of her job for wearing a cross had her religious rights violated, the European court of human rights (ECHR) has ruled.

Yorkshire Evening Post

• Letter: Transport’s future I have made suggestions regarding the provision of a rail service to Leeds Bradford Airport which has prompted correspondence on public transport in the area.

Bucks Free Press

• John Bercow MP hits out at HS2 SPEAKER of the House of Commons John Bercow has spoken out against the controversial HS2 project today.

Other Regional Press

• Thameslink upgrade will link East Croydon with Peterborough and CambridgeDIRECT rail links from East Croydon to Peterborough and Cambridge will available for the first time as part of the £6 billion being spent on upgrading Thameslink services between 2014 and 2019.
• Email your ideas to improve Slaithwaite StationWHAT improvements would you like to see at Slaithwaite Railway Station?
• West Dorset to lose early morning bus concession WEST Dorset District Council is to scrap its support for free bus travel for pensioners before 9.30am.

Global Rail News

• Rail procurement procedure recognises sustainabilityNetwork Rail Infrastructure Projects has made sustainability a formal part of its procurement process, with five per cent of tenders now hinging on a bid’s green credentials. The move is part of Network Rail’s ‘Sustainable Development Vision’ which looks at how future major rail infrastructure projects can address pressing environmental and social challenges. Waste and [...]
• Work starts on Swindon-Gloucester line upgradeNetwork Rail has begun work on a £45 million project to upgrade the line between Swindon and Gloucester via Kemble and Stroud. The new infrastructure will increase capacity allowing for the operation of four trains per hour in each direction. The planned work will include the reinstatement of the second line between Swindon and Kemble, [...]
• Back to BirminghamThe £600 million redevelopment of Birmingham’s New Street Station is heading for an important milestone in the next few months. The first phase of the new station concourse will be opened to the public in April 2013, and the existing concourse will be shut off so that it, in turn, can be remodelled and upgraded. [...]
• Video: London Underground™s 150th anniversary celebrationSteam returned to the London Underground on Sunday as the freshly-restored Met Locomotive No. 1 and the oldest operational Tube carriage took to the rails to mark the system’s 150th birthday.
• Testing begins on new Denver rail linkTrains are running on Denver’s new West Rail Line for the first time ahead of the route’s official opening in April. A train ran the entire length of the line earlier this month in the first phase of testing. œThis is a huge milestone for RTD as the test train will be operating under its [...]
• U.S. high-speed rail ˜well on its way and not turning back™‘High-speed rail is well on its way, and it is not turning back’, according to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. Addressing delegates at the Transportation Research Board’s Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, LaHood said high-speed rail projects were gaining momentum in the country and aiding a re-emerging U.S. manufacturing sector. “My message to workshop [...]
• How Britain is helping build Brazil™s modern railwayBrazil desperately needs new rail infrastructure and 160 years after building its first railway, the country is again turning to British engineers for help. Britain’s relationship with Brazil’s railway began even before the very first line opened in Mauá in 1854. Brazil needed British engineers to design its new lines as well as oversee their [...]
• EU gives €5m to Nuremberg-Fürth upgradePlans to improve a 4 km stretch of railway in southern Germany have been awarded five million euros by the EU. The project, which will upgrade an existing two-track railway line north of Nuremburg to a four-track electrified line, will form part of a new trans-European (TEN) high-speed corridor once it is completed in 2014. [...]

Railnews

• National industrial action ballot called in Scotland The RMT is preparing for all its signallers in Scotland to take industrial action in a long-running dispute over the negotiation of rosters. A local strike has also been announced for the end of this week, with signallers at Stirling and Dunblane set to walk out for 24 hours on Saturday.

Aviation Industry

• American-US Airways merger 'may be imminent,' analyst saysJ.P. Morgan analyst Jamie Baker - who is known in the airline community as the analyst who asked former AMR chief executive Gerard Arpey,

Other News Sources

• Underground agency staff to be balloted for strike action over termination of contractTUBE UNION RMT said today that it is to ballot all staff working on London Underground's 'Trainpeople' agency contract for strike action over the termination of a deal which will dump dozens of staff on the dole and which makes a mockery of regulations which were supposed to protect the employment rights of agency staff.
• New Redhill station platform to improve rail services A NEW platform will be built at Redhill railway station as part of a five-year project to improve train services in the south east.