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

Wednesday, 10 August 2016

BBC News

• Bombardier gets £1bn contract in 'biggest rail boost since Victorian era'The UK's last train maker Bombardier has been awarded a £1bn contract as part of "the biggest investment in the railways since the Victorian era".
• Future on the line in Southern rail disputeAt a time when the driverless car is said to be just around the corner, the rail dispute that has brought five days of strike action to Southern trains seems to belong to another age.
• Eurostar staff to strike for seven daysEurostar rail workers are to take seven days of strike action this month in a dispute over their work-life balance, the RMT union says.
• Chinook repair site in Gosport to stop apprentice intake for 2017An apprenticeship scheme at a company that maintains the RAF's fleet of Chinooks is stopped for the first time in its 75-year history.
• ScotRail and RMT union in fresh talks over strike actionScotRail and the RMT union are holding further talks in a bid to resolve the dispute which led to strike action in June and July.
• Southern rail strike: Workers and passengers plan protestsPassengers and the RMT union are planning separate protests on the third day of a five-day conductor's strike on the Southern rail network.
• Virgin East Coast rail staff vote to strikeVirgin East Coast rail workers vote to strike in their dispute over job losses, working conditions and safety..
• Looming Brexit headache for Nissan’s Sunderland plantThe UK's biggest car plant - the Nissan factory in Sunderland - could face a crunch point for investment as soon as next year, sources tell BBC Newsnight.

ITV News

• Derby train maker Bombardier land £1 billion pound contract securing 1,000 jobs into the next decadeThe Derby train maker Bombardier have announced they have won a £1 billion pound contract which will secure a thousand jobs into the next decade.

Department for Transport

• Better journeys for rail passengers and boost for Derby train industry as new East Anglia franchise announcedEnhanced services and faster trains across East Anglia franchise including new trains from Bombardier.

Financial Times

• Abellio wins new East Anglia rail contractAbellio, a subsidiary of the Dutch state rail operator, will continue running train services in the east of England, between Liverpool Street station in London to Cambridge, Peterborough and Norwich, after beating off competition from rivals including National Express for a new nine-year contract.

The Guardian

• Bombardier's Derby factory wins £1bn East Anglia trains dealBombardier’s factory in Derby has won a contract worth almost £1bn to build trains for the East Anglia rail network in a deal that will safeguard 1,000 jobs at Britain’s only remaining train maker.
• Bike share mapping creates beautiful portraits of London, NYC and BerlinResearchers in Germany have turned GPS data from three major world bike share programmes into living, breathing visualisations of the cities themselvesBike sharing programmes have grown from just 24 cities worldwide a decade ago to more than 800 cities today, but how has a 200-year-old device suddenly become the next big thing in urban transport? The key is digital information, the real-time GPS technology that allows the bikes to be tracked and secured, and lets cities monitor how and where they are being used.Some cities have also begun posting this GPS data online, allowing the public to co...

The Herald

• Fast-track Glasgow Airport rail link 'to offset Brexit fallout', councils urgeCONSTRUCTION of a rail link at Glasgow Airport should be fast-tracked to offset the economic uncertainty of the Brexit vote, according to council leaders who are calling on the Transport Minister to give the project his

The Huffington Post

• Eurostar Strike Action By Rail Workers Set For Two Weekends In August Eurostar rail workers are to take seven days of strike action over two weekends this month in a dispute over work/life balance, said the RMT union. The walk out will begin on 00:01 on 12 August until 23.59 on 15 August, and then for three days over the Bank Holiday weekend from 27 August. The dispute involves around 80 train managers concerned about unsocial hours and duty rosters. More to follow...

The Telegraph

• Rail worker dispute escalates as Eurostar train staff to strike for seven days in August, the RMT union says

Times Online

• The Southern rail strike and train services [Subscription]Sir, I write to you as a railwayman with 54 years of footplate experience having commenced my career in 1962 on steam locomotives.
• Staff at Virgin rail vote for mass walkoutRail passengers are facing disruption on one of the busiest intercity lines amid a battle over reforms to the railway.
• Talks to avert rail strike ‘were sabotaged by a civil servant’ [Subscription]A senior civil servant who vowed to break Britain’s rail unions has been blamed for the collapse of talks aimed at ending the most damaging dispute of its kind in almost 50 years.

Reuters News

• Britain awards eastern England rail contract to AbellioBritain awarded a contract to run rail services in East Anglia to the incumbent operator Abellio East Anglia, as part of a deal which included a 1 billion pound deal for the UK arm of manufacturer Bombardier (BBDb.TO) to supply new trains.

Mail Online

• Virgin East Coast trains under threat from rail strikes over jobs and safety concerns The dispute came as RMT members at Southern Rail continued their five-day strike, in London and the south east of England. Financial experts have estimated the strike will cost London �100million.

Birmingham Post

• Uber invests in Birmingham tech firm Famous taxi app has injected capital into Memrica which has developed a service to help people living with everyday memory problems

Derby Telegraph

• One billion pound Bombardier deal for Derby - all you need to know As the city wakes up to news that train-maker Bombardier has landed a £1 billion deal with the new franchisee of the East Anglia rail franchise, our business editor Robin Johnson answers some key questions:
• Chris Grayling at Bombardier to make a key announcement DERBY train-maker Bombardier has landed a £1 billion deal with the new franchisee of the East Anglia rail franchise that will keep its factory busy into the next decade.

Manchester Evening News

• All Emirates flights from Manchester to Dubai will be on airline’s double-decker A380s The airline has brought in a third double decker A380 to travel the route

Sheffield Star

• Tram ‘not being driven appropriately’ during Sheffield tram crash - FULL REPORT publishedA Sheffield tram was ‘not being driven appropriately’ when it crashed into another tram in an incident which put them out of service for weeks, a report published today has concluded.

Wales Online

• Drivers have now paid more than �4m in bus lane fines in Cardiff The cameras were turned on in December 2014 and have generated millions for the city council

Yorkshire Evening Post

• Views sought on Morley’s new transport hubAn ambitious plan to create a new transport hub for Morley town centre has been put out for public consultation by council chiefs.

East Anglian Daily Times

• Abellio wins East Anglian rail franchise for nine years in £1.4bn dealThe new service for rail passengers across East Anglia promises to deliver more than 1,040 new state of the art carriages and cut journey times by an average of 10%.

Peterborough Telegraph

• Virgin East Coast workers vote overwhelming to go on strikeIndustrial relations on the railways have worsened after workers on Virgin East Coast voted to strike in a dispute over jobs, working conditions and safety.

The Shields Gazette

• Virgin East Coast workers set to go on strikeWorkers on the Virgin East Coast trainline have voted to strike in a dispute over jobs, working conditions and safety.

Other Regional Press

• Abellio Greater Anglia to run East Anglia rail franchise for next nine years Abellio East Anglia will provide rail services in East Anglia for the next nine years after being awarded a £1.4 billion contract by the Government.
• Rail improvement plan for North Wales and Cheshire backed by MPs’ groupA TASK force aiming to secure £1 billion of rail improvements across North Wales and Cheshire has won the support of a parliamentary group.
• Abellio win East Anglia rail franchise - promising free Wi-Fi and more services for Cambridge Free Wi-Fi on all its services, quicker journey times and more services are among the pledges from the region's new rail operator.
• MSP welcomes transport summit Galloway MSP Finlay Carson has welcomed the announcement that a transport summit will be in held on Monday, August 22, to discuss key concerns about transport and infrastructure in Dumfries and Galloway.

Rail Magazine

• Customers at core of NR Transformation PlanNetwork Rail is promising to put its customers at the heart of what it does in the future.

Rail Technology Magazine

• Brexit vote means HS3 must be prioritised over HS2 and Crossrail 2, says IPPRWork must be “brought urgently forward” on the proposed HS3 east-west rail project, even if this means that it takes priority over HS2, a leading think tank has said in a new report making the case for faster investment in the north. As part of a proposed North First strategy for...
• Network Rail CP5 costs soar with poor renewals performanceHigher renewals costs and enhancements underperformance have been key factors to Network Rail’s work costing £1.7bn more than expected so far in CP5, according to the ORR, and will leave the company in a worse financial position at the start of the next control period. The...

Railnews

• Southern digs in over 'pointless' RMT conductors' strike Southern has claimed that one in five conductors turned up for work on the first day of the DOO strike, effectively defying their union the RMT. The five-day strike has entered its second day, amid warnings from Southern's owner Govia Thameslink Railway that the changeover from conductors to on-board supervisors 'is happening'. The company said it will to begin to make the change on 21 August, despite determined union opposition. The RMT is pointing to a provisional agreement it has with ScotRail, which includes an undertaking that no train will run without two members of crew on board, but S...
• RMT staff vote for industrial action on Virgin Trains East Coast Members of the RMT on Virgin Trains East Coast have voted for industrial action by a large majority, in a dispute over changes to staffing. The union has accused VTEC of 'bulldozing' changes through without consultation, but VTEC says they are part of a 'customer-centric revolution'. The union said 84 per cent of those who voted were in favour of a strike, and almost 90 per cent approved action short of a strike. The RMT claims that almost 200 jobs are at risk, but VTEC has urged the union to resume negotiations.

Aviation Industry

• Cost of flying to increase with a new runway while ICAO calls for major biofuel investmentBig increases in ticket prices would be the only way to reconcile a new runway with climate laws, new analysis shows. Up to �43 would need to be added to a return flight from Manchester to Amsterdam, �162 for a …
• Delta cancels more flights Tuesday as operations recoverDelta Air Lines preemptively canceled 300 flights early Tuesday, Aug. 9 as the company
• Lufthansa Cargo takes over time:matters GroupGermany’s Lufthansa Cargo has taken over complete ownership of time:matters Group, a company specializing in global same-day delivery and time-critical international spare part logistics. read more
• Air France to increase West Africa flights Air France will begin 3X-weekly Paris Charles de Gaulle-Accra (Ghana, West Africa) services on Feb. 28, 2017. read more
• Virgin Australia plans first route to ChinaVirgin Australia has begun detailed planning for its first routes to China, which it plans to launch in 2017. read more
• IATA: US Customs to use standardized cargo data messaging formatUS Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will implement IATA’s standardized Cargo-XML messaging format within the next few months, IATA announced Aug. 8. read more
• Amazon showcases first branded air cargo aircraftOnline retail and technology company Amazon showcased its first branded air cargo aircraft Aug. 5 during Seafair’s Air Show, an annual community celebration in Seattle, Washington. read more

Other News Sources

• Procurement Exercise For Replacement Bus Services in Wrexham Sees Limited ResponseWrexham Council are to examine other options for transport provision in the county borough following a limited response to a procurement exercise for other providers to take on services previously run by GHA Coaches.
• Revised Lincoln bus timetables to begin ahead of Transport Hub worksNew Lincoln bus service timetables will begin from August 14, despite the start date for the Lincoln Transport Hub being postponed.
• Rail row rumbles on as war of words over the strikes continues THE industrial dispute which has blighted the railway network showed no signs of ending as it entered its third day.