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

Sunday, 30 July 2017

BBC News

• Northern locations get vintage rail poster makeoverModern towns and cities receive the 1930s railway poster treatment for a new exhibition.

The Guardian

• Digital railcards could be just the ticket to avoid penalty faresNow your card can be on your smartphone rather having to carry a paper card
• Border chaos will hit hard after Brexit, says reportAnalysis from economic consultancy Oxera says cost to UK of new customs checks and ensuing delays could amount to more than £1bn a year

Times Online

• BA refuses to reveal details of IT failure [Subscription]British Airways has said that it will not publish a report into the IT shutdown that left thousands of passengers stranded at airport terminals on one of the busiest weekends of the year.
• How late is your train? Rail firms’ punctuality claims are way off track [Subscription]An investigation by The Sunday Times has found companies overstate the reliability of their services by more than a quarter
• Sn-ap’s on-demand coaches reduce cost of travel [Subscription]It may be the least fashionable form of transport but travelling by coach has just become cheaper. A British start-up company, Sn-ap, has launched a website that links passengers seeking similar journeys, arranging coaches when it judges that there is enough demand.
• Electric cars: the charge is on to install more top‑up points [Subscription]The electric car revolution will change the face of British streets with charging points becoming as ubiquitous as lampposts.
• TaxPayers’ Alliance calls for review of ‘£104bn’ HS2 [Subscription]Campaigners are urging the government to put the HS2 rail project on hold so that an urgent review can be carried out into the scheme’s cost.
• The wheeled iPhone you can always upgrade [Subscription]am one of only a few journalists to have driven the car that could change the world. If Elon Musk is right, the Model 3 is the iPhone of transport, turning electric cars from playthings for millionaires, or tinny runabouts for hippies, into must-have gadgets for the masses. But that revolution, and the planet-saving benefits it brings, hinges on one thing: what is the car like to drive?
• The train is a strain as more than a third arrive late [Subscription]More than 36% of trains arrive late, according to the first comprehensive minute-by-minute, station-by-station figures to be published.

Daily Record

• £10k car grant for ScotRail boss who takes train to work every dayUnion staff are outraged by all the huge bonuses Alex Hynes receives despite cutbacks in other areas of the company.

This is Money

• Will 2040 really mark the end of diesel and petrol cars? Only new cars with a conventional petrol or diesel engine will be banned from sale from that date.

Bristol Live

• Bristol has one of the slowest train services to London out of all the UK's major citiesNew figures have revealed that Bristol has one of the slowest rail connections to London out of all the major cities in the UK.

London Evening Standard

• South West Trains delays: Signal failure sparks chaos with hours of delaysThousands of furious passengers have complained of huge delays and dangerously overcrowded carriages on South West Trains.

Manchester Evening News

• Work set to start on five new stretches of smart motorway - on M60, M62, M56 and M6Out of the Smart Motorway frying pan and into the 50mph limit fire
• Inside the 'ghost plane' forced to shed over 100 passengers before it could fly back to ManchesterFootage shows the eerily empty plane on its way back to Manchester Airport

The York Press

• Cost of dualling the A64 between £30.5m-£105m DUALLING the A64 west of Malton would cost between £30.5 million and £105 million - depending partly on whether the existing road is widened or a brand new road built.

Wales Online

• Arriva Trains Wales are clamping down on discounted on board ticket salesThe rail firm said the rules had always been in place but now they would be enforced
• Arriva Trains Wales are clamping down on discounted on board ticket sales The rail firm said the rules had always been in place but now they would be enforced

Yorkshire Post

• Tom Richmond: Minister’s backtracking on rail link is deplorableLET me be generous to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and give him the benefit of the doubt on the future of the Leeds to Manchester railway. He is right when he says electrification may not be totally practical on this Victorian transport link – what passengers want is reliability and journey times of no more than 30 minutes.

Other Regional Press

• Electrification of railway lines will be worth disruption in endThere’s a major upgrade taking place on the train line between Preston and Blackpool.
• AM's call over 'missing' Newport to Ebbw Vale rail linkA DIRECT rail link between Newport and Ebbw Vale is crucial for the two areas to prosper, an AM has said.
• Abergavenny train line re-openTRAIN lines have re-opened at Abergavenny train station. The Argus previously reported that rail passengers were being advised not to travel in parts of Gwent due to a fault with line side equipment.
• Basingstoke MP Maria Miller raises warning as half of train services set to stopAN MP has called for more awareness over the huge curtailing of train services in and out of Basingstoke this summer, to help avoid ‘transport misery’.

Railway Gazette

• Digital Railcard app roll-out UK: The roll-out of smartphone app versions of Railcards which offer discounts on fares is to begin...

Other News Sources

• Mail Rail: Riding on London's underground postal trainsFew of the millions of people whose letters and packages were shuttled on a tiny train line deep under London ever suspected it existed.
• Rail fares to rocket as train companies 'rob' passengers to fund overseas services, union claimsEuropean rail owners of UK companies are accused of robbing passengers as they keep prices down in their country
• AM's call over 'missing' Newport to Ebbw Vale rail linkA DIRECT rail link between Newport and Ebbw Vale is crucial for the two areas to prosper, an AM has said.
• Gatwick Airport £1.15bn boostGATWICK Airport is investing £1.15 billion over the next five years with £240 million planned for 2017/18 alone.