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

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

BBC News

• VIDEO: The trucker modernising his industryThe driver hauling his industry into the digital age
• VIDEO: Mercedes: Car as smartphone on wheelsSamira Hussain speaks to Dieter Zetsche, head of Mercedes-Benz about autonomous vehicles, and cars becoming smartphones on wheels.
• VIDEO: What if you could print your next car?Arizona-based Local Motors made car history recently when it became the first firm to 3D print a driveable car. The BBC's Samira Hussain was given exclusive access behind the wheel.
• Busiest year for Orkney cruise shipsOrkney's cruise liner industry was worth more than £4m to the local economy in 2014, and the islands are now set for their busiest ever year.
• Edinburgh's 20mph speed limit passedCouncillors pass plans for more than 80% of Edinburgh's roads, including the whole of the city centre, to have a 20mph speed limit.
• PM criticises 'never on time' trainThe Prime Minister says a rail service which was late every day for a year is
• London bus drivers stage strikeLondon bus drivers in London walk out in a campaign for a single agreement covering pay and conditions for drivers on more than 670 routes.
• Car firms take on the tech giantsCar firms take on the tech giants
• Airbus 'exceeds targets' for salesAirbus - which employs 6,000 workers in north Wales - says it exceeded its targets for 2014 and beats rival aircraft giant Boeing for sales.

Financial Times

• Ecommerce spurs Eurotunnel expansionThree new trains planned as cross-Channel trade booms
• Divers find second AirAsia black boxCockpit voice recorder found day after recovery of flight data recorder
• Dutch to publish air traffic incidentsInformation on near misses aims to reassure public
• Traffic jams hurting Britain, says S&PRating agency calls for boost to infrastructure investment

The Guardian

• Off the buses: strike hits London commuters - in picturesBus drivers from the majority of the British capital’s 18 bus operators have started a 24-hour strike in a dispute over pay Continue reading...

The Telegraph

• Commuters should get refunds for 'consistently bad service', says David CameronPrime Minister warns train operators they will lose franchises if they 'continue to fail'
• The train can't take the strainTelegraph View: Network Rail is inefficient, unaccountable and indifferent to the customer - it must sort its act out
• London bus strike 2015 - as it happened, January 13, 2015TFL warns that just 30% of London buses are running a normal service today, as drivers stage a one day walk out

Daily Express

• Spending a penny costs passengers more than £400,000 at one UK rail stationPassengers caught short at Manchester Piccadilly train station must spend 30p if they want to use the facility – adding up to £435,651.30 in just 12 months.
• New Network Rail train runs on rechargeable batteriesBRITAIN'S first battery-run passenger train in 50 years took to the rails yesterday.

Network Rail

• Batteries included: Prototype battery-powered train carries passengers for first timeThe first battery-powered train to run on Britain’s rail network in more than half a century carries its first passengers this week. This marks an important milestone in the project to demonstrate the viability of an eco-friendly battery-powered train for the twenty-first century.
• Storm conditions set to affect some West of Scotland rail servicesHundreds of engineers will be deployed across the network tonight and tomorrow to monitor conditions and repair damage Our fleet of snow ploughs and our snow clearing train are ready to deploy to clear routes for passengers Limited number of services being withdrawn from noon on Wednesday when worst of the winds will strike.

Birmingham Post

• Jaguar steps up the PaceThe firm has already invested £1.5 billion in the Solihull plant to enable it to increase production and said this week its workforce there had almost doubled over the past three years to around 9,500

Liverpool Echo

• Electronic tickets for public transport due to be rolled out across Merseyside this springMore than 28,000 smart cards sold since Wirral launch - and more than half have been re-used

London Evening Standard

• London bus strike 2015: Two thirds of routes hit as Mayor defends pay system Boris Johnson today said the current system of pay for London bus workers was "very sensible."
• Cabbies fight Uber tax loophole An alliance of more than 20,000 taxi and minicab drivers have called for the Government to crack down on the Uber app’s “unfairâ€� tax practices, threatening to adopt similar “avoidance arrangementsâ€� unless something is done.
• Eurotunnel buys three more trains as UK economy thrives Eurotunnel has spent 40 million (£31 million) buying three new freight trains, with the cross-Channel rail business citing the growing British economy as its reason for investment.
• 'Smoking' London Underground carriage causes delays on Piccadilly line Commuters were forced to evacuate a London Underground train after reports of smoke coming from a carriage.
• On the Money: Commuters railroaded into coughing up fare rises of as much as 35% There is an army of London commuters who feel they’ve been ripped off by increased transport costs.
• Boardroom crisis for Hailo as taxi app names third boss in four months Under pressure London taxi app Hailo is facing a crisis of leadership, after appointing its second chief executive in four months.
• Rail operators will lose franchises if trains continue to arrive late, David Cameron warns David Cameron has hit out at train companies after it was revealed that some commuter services operate with regular delays, warning that they risk losing their franchise if they fail to run trains properly.

Manchester Evening News

• Manchester's 'new' trains are cast-offs from the south - but there will be more seatsNorthern Rail will get 20 four-car electric trains between May this year and February 2016 - but will all come second-hand from the Thameslink line

Metro

• These witty leaflets were given out to people during the London bus strikesOne leaflet read: 'Just picture a massive black hole where London used to be. That's what you're dealing with now: a huge nothing.'

Newcastle Journal

• Exclusion of Teesside from North transport body is 'a mistake'Andy McDonald MP said it is a "sorry state of affairs" that Teesside has been sidelined in plans for Transport for the North body

The York Press

• Rail chief apologises for Christmas travel chaos POOR planning, equipment failures and communication breakdowns all contributed to the Christmas rail engineering overruns which led to disrupted journeys for York rail passengers.

Blackpool Gazette

• MP welcomes U-turn over plan to scrap subsidies for rural bus servicesA Fylde coast MP has welcomed the scrapping of a plan to axe funding for some rural bus services.

Carlisle News & Star

• Rail workers to strike again over job cuts on Carlisle to Settle line Workers on the historic Carlisle to Settle rail line will walk-out again tomorrow in their long-running dispute over compulsory redundancies.

Other Regional Press

• Tributes flood Oxford railway station in memory of gateline manager Steve Cross PASSENGERS and train staff have created a memorial to a rail staff member who died on Saturday.

C.N.N.

• Tighter security at airports after calls for attacks

Bus and Coach.com

• Network Warrington confirms Graham as MD
• Phillips succeeds Cameron at First Aberdeen
• Padarn directors face fraud charges
• Losses rise as sales drop at Optare
• Eddie Brown Tours in administration
• D&G takes Bakerbus routes
• Wales proposes partnership boards
• £20million Glasgow bus garage opened
• Tackling car dependency: best and the worst

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• Leaders get to work on ‘Northern powerhouse’ rail planTransport chiefs have visited Yorkshire in order to take the first step to transform the north into a ‘powerhouse’ by establishing better rail connections.  Transport for the North’s inaugural meeting was held in Leeds and marked the first step of drawing up a comprehensive transport strategy for the north alongside the government.  It is hoped these plans will help to optimise the region’s growth potential, transform the north’s economic infrastructure and rebalance the national economy.  Patrick McLoughlin, transpor...

Rail Magazine

• McLoughlin attends first Transport for the North meetingSecretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin urges the north to speak with one voice to Government
• Battery-powered Electrostar enters trafficTrials using battery powered Abellio Greater Anglia Class 379 begins on Harwich branch
• Eurotunnel orders three new freight shuttlesCapacity will increase by 20% and Eurotunnel will run up to eight departures per hour at the peak, compared with six now, with the additional shuttles.

Railnews

• Northampton station opens and North moves forward Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin paid a surprise visit to Northampton on Monday 12 January to open the town's new £12 million station. Patrick McLoughlin then continued to Leeds, where he joined the inaugural meeting of Transport for the North, an alliance of key local authorities which was announced by the DfT in October. The new organisation will be responsible for drawing up what the DfT described as a 'comprehensive transport strategy' for the region, which will not only consider rail links, particularly east to west, but also roads, ports, airports and broadband.

Aviation Industry

• UK airports call for country-wide cuts to APDAOA wants any cuts to air tax in Scotland matched elsewhere
• Manchester airport posts record passenger traffic for DecemberTraveller numbers jump 7.4% on 2013
• Dubai warns Heathrow over capacity issuesUK’s largest airport loses top spot to Gulf hub

Other News Sources

• Parking charges to ‘double’ under new plan Parking charges in some areas of the city are set to double if new proposals are accepted.
• Flight Cancellations Slightly Down From Previous Year, November 2014The nationrsquo;s largest airlines canceled 0.9 percent of their scheduled domestic flights in November, an improvement over both the 1.0 percent cancellation rate posted in November 2013 and...
• Silver Rail acquires Swedish rail tech firm LinkonRail search and booking technologies firm Silver Rail has acquired Linkon, a similar company operating in Sweden.