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

Thursday, 08 January 2015

BBC News

• Concerns raised over cuts to Stranraer-Glasgow rail serviceProposed changes to rail timetables would mean just one train would run from Stranraer direct to Glasgow daily.
• London Bridge delays: Rail boss 'deeply regretful' about problemsThe Network Rail boss in charge of the South East has admitted this week's overcrowding and delays at London Bridge Station have been "embarrassing".
• Great Western rail works impact 'disproportionate to passengers'Rail work on the Great Western mainline is causing "a disproportionate impact to passengers", a Network Rail boss has said.
• Stonehenge parking expansion planned after transport issuesA planning application to provide more parking spaces and resurface the overflow car park at Stonehenge is to go before the local authority.
• Stricken cargo ship 'held' in waterThe cargo ship that has been stricken in the Solent since Saturday is
• Rail users warned of more delaysLondon Bridge rail commuters are being warned to expect more cancellations, delays and overcrowding as the station undergoes redevelopment.
• Largest container ship arrives in UKThe world's largest container ship, measuring more than four football pitches long, arrives in the UK for the first time - carrying 19,000 standard containers.
• UK new car sales hit 10-year highNew UK car sales hit a 10-year high in 2014, boosted by confidence in the economic recovery, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has said.

Department for Transport

• New plan to secure rail services for the northExisting rail services will be maintained and more seats will be offered in the north of England as part of a plan to secure rolling stock.
• Rail in the north: rolling stockAn agreement has been reached with with TransPennine Express and Northern Rail that will offer extra rolling stock for the north of England.

Financial Times

• Thetrainline.com eyes £500m IPOLondon-based online rail-bookings group poised to be first tech float of the year
• Korean Air nut rage executive chargedChairman’s daughter could face prison sentence over tantrum
• Indonesia’s aviation crackdown questionedAnalysts warn ‘knee jerk reaction’ risks undermining industry
• High tide lifts ship off Solent sand bankSalvors allow nature to set course for stricken car carrier
• Rail network BNSF lifts container banGroup says ‘westbound pipelines’ were manageable amid congestion caused by port labour dispute

The Guardian

• Women shouldn't need special train cars to avoid harassers. Men need to leave women in peaceWhy do we ask for gender-segregated transport for women if the problem is men behaving badly? Harassment doesn't start and end on the commuteIf you would have told me as a subway-riding teenager that there was a women-only car on the Manhattan-bound N-train, I would have been thrilled because anything would have been better than the never-ending gauntlet of assgrabs and “hey babys” from adult men when I was 16. I’d even still hop on a single-sex train car today, if my morning was going poorly enough. But gender-segregated public transport can only help women for the length of one commute: sexu...
• AirAsia flight: first pictures released of plane wreckage under waterDivers have located the tail section of the doomed flight, raising hopes of recovering the aircraft’s black boxesHopes of finding AirAsia flight 8501’s black boxes were raised on Wednesday after divers and an unmanned underwater vehicle spotted the missing plane’s tail in the Java Sea, the first confirmed sighting of any major wreckage 11 days after it disappeared with 162 people on board.Powerful currents and murky water continue to hinder the operation, but searchers managed to get a photograph of the debris after it was detected by an Indonesian survey ship, the National Search and Rescue A...
• Car sales in the UK in 2014 return to pre-recession levelsCheap finance deals and economic growth help fuel highest annual sales figures in any year of the last decadeBritish consumers bought more new cars in 2014 than in any year in the last decade as cheap finance deals and a growing economy fuelled confidence.There were 2.48m new cars sold across the UK, up 9.3% on 2013 and beating industry expectations of 2.45m sales. Growth last year put the UK ahead of its peers in the EU, where growth was an average of 5.7% in data available for January to November. Continue reading...

The Herald

• Six weeks of disruption on Edinburgh-Glasgow rail line COMMUTERS face six weeks of disruption on the key Glasgow to Edinburgh rail line as electrification works progress.
• New car sales in Scotland at highest figure for a decadeNEW car sales in Scotland rocketed to their highest level in a decade last year as optimism over the economic recovery pushed demand to an all-time high.

The Scotsman

• Edinburgh set for 20mph speed limitsThe speed limit on the majority of roads in Edinburgh is set to be reduced to 20mph under plans by the city council.

The Mirror

• £1MILLION car crash scam involved 200 fake whiplash claims, court told Claimants’ details from the crashes around Chester were also allegedly passed to solicitors for fees of up to £900 a time by John Smith
• Skoda Fabia wins Car of the Year at What Car? awards The model was also named best small car, and was praised by awards organisers for beating off its big name rivals

This is Money

• Heathrow chief John Holland-Kaye: Gatwick airport is only good for holidays Heathrow employs 76,000 people within the airport and expansion would mean 40,000 new jobs.

Network Rail

• New bridge allows for faster services in future for passengersNetwork Rail engineers worked through the Christmas break to rebuild an ageing bridge as part of work to provide a modern, bigger and better railway.
• Media statement on London BridgeNetwork Rail and Southern apologise for the unacceptable disruption and delays to passengers at London Bridge this week resulting in severe overcrowding on the concourse. This is not the level of service that customers deserve, expect or that we want to deliver.
• Network Rail announces £16m enhancement for Edinburgh-Fife lineNetwork Rail and Transport Minister Derek Mackay have announced that one of Scotland's iconic rail routes will benefit from a £16m signalling enhancement.

Birmingham Mail

• Teenager runs out of toilet paper on Virgin train before Twitter came to the rescueRail passenger invited to operator's Birmingham HQ after tweets help alert staff to bring extra loo roll

London Evening Standard

• Aer Lingus encounters turbulence as December passenger numbers decline Bid target Aer Lingus suffered an 8% fall in passengers carried on short-haul flights during December, in sharp contrast with its Irish low-cost rival Ryanair.

Sheffield Star

• South Yorkshire rail cuts protesters vow to fight onTravel cuts protesters say they will continue to fight against rail concession reductions after airing their views at a South Yorkshire transport meeting.

Yorkshire Post

• Bus firm apologises for refusing to take Scottish £10 noteA LAWYER has won an apology on behalf of her elderly parents after a bus driver refused to accept a Scottish £10 note.
• Video: York’s National Railway Museum turns 40During his career, Phil Atkins met the Prince and Princess of Wales - and was even introduced to a Prime Minister.
• Deadline warning on £7m Yorkshire road schemePLANS for a £7m roads project at one of West Yorkshire’s most heavily congested junctions are facing “extremely challenging” time scales, a council has admitted.

Doncaster Free Press

• Council gives Doncaster rail college the green lightPlans for a rail college in Doncaster have steamed ahead, after the council approved support and land for the scheme this morning.

Other Regional Press

• South West businesses asked to back Heathrow expansion plans Nigel Milton, Heathrow Airport’s Director of External Affairs has visited Devon and Cornwall talking with the Local Enterprise Partnerships, MPs and business leaders about plans to make Heathrow ’an airport for the UK’.
• Second runway at Gatwick on agenda at two council meetingsCouncillors will scrutinise and debate whether a second runway should come to Gatwick at two West Sussex County Council meetings this month. The final decision will be for the new government after the general election.
• Redesigned road junction is dangerous say cycle campaigners A NEW road junction in Oxford has been des-cribed as an accident waiting to happen by a national cycling charity.
• Broken down train causing delays to rail services in NorthamptonA broken down line inspection train is currently causing delays to rail services in Northampton.
• Transporter Bridge renovation facing further delays due to subcontractor entering administrationNo work could be progressed over the Christmas period after subcontractor SBV Fabrications went into administration in late December
• Preston’s cyclists get green light to use pavement on busy roadCyclists dicing with death on a busy Preston road are to be given the green light to share the pavement with pedestrians.
• CCTV pictures of man hunted for theft at Leeds rail station released by transport policeVictim robbed as he fell asleep
• Six port workers to lose jobs as Condor departs SIX council staff will lose their jobs over the next few months as operations wind down at Weymouth port in the wake of Condor Ferries leaving.
• Party launches campaign HQ as promises are made to rail commutersSeventeen weeks of political jostling ahead of the General Election has begun with the launch of Labour’s campaign headquarters in Bedford.

Rail Magazine

• Class 800 leaves Hitachi factory in JapanThe first completed Class 800 IEP train has begun its journey from Japan, bound for the UK.

Railnews

• Network Rail apologises for London Bridge problems Continuing disruption at key pinchpoints on the railway network has triggered new criticism from opposition politicians. Network Rail's first report on the problems at London King's Cross on 27 December is due at the end of this week, and it is expected to reveal why a Christmas engineering possession overran by some 16 hours. Although the work on the East Coast line has been completed, there have been continuing problems at London Bridge, with delays last night attributed to 'congestion' as work on the Thameslink Programme is stepped up.

Aviation Industry

• Flybe to launch Cardiff-Dusseldorf summer routeWeekly service launches April 25

Other News Sources

• Southern and Network Rail sorry for London Bridge delaysRailway companies admit there has been
• Network Rail boss to face MPs over Christmas travel disruptionNetwork Rail chief executive Mark Carne will face a grilling from MPs over Christmas’ travel chaos when he appears before a House of Commons committee next week.
• Costain and Skanska win £55m Crossrail link at PaddingtonLondon Underground has appointed Costain and Skanska to deliver a £55m tunnel to link the new Crossrail station to the Bakerloo line platforms at Paddington.
• Hawaiian Airlines Sets New Record Carrying 10.2 Million Passengers in 2014Hawaiian Airlines, Inc., a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: HA), has announced its system-wide traffic statistics for the full year, fourth quarter and the month of December 2014....