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

Sunday, 30 June 2019

BBC News

• M4 at Newport: Shutting junctions 'would increase city queues'Closing junctions has been suggested as a cheap way of reducing congestion on the M4.
• Crash victim wants wearing cycle helmets made compulsoryCyclist Carl Edwards was told by medics he would have been killed in a crash if not for his helmet.
• How smart are Highways England's smart motorways?UK motorways are being upgraded with extra technology, but how exactly does it work?
• Berlin Brandenburg: The airport with half a million faultsBillions over budget, years late in opening, and still being rebuilt before a single plane has landed. What's gone so wrong at the new Berlin airport?
• Glasgow Queen Street station upgrade will 'benefit commuters'Network Rail says the upgrade at Glasgow Queen Street station will lead to a greener approach to rail travel.
• County Monaghan: WW2 plane wreckage removed from fieldThe plane crashed in County Monaghan in 1942, after the American pilot had bailed out.
• Seven new Glasgow Airport strike dates announced for JulyThe action is scheduled to take place throughout the first fortnight of July in a row over pay and pensions.
• UK seeks new no-deal Brexit freight planThe hurried procurement process as the UK prepared to leave the EU on 29 March cost taxpayers £85m.

The Guardian

• Passenger threatened with court for using screenshot of e-ticket Traveller was allowed to board train, but was later told she would have to pay £160 fare

The Independent

• Pilot forced to dump fuel, causing explosion, after flying through flock of birdsThe pilot 'saved multiple lives'
• Overheated: Jubilee Line tops London Tube temperature tableAll the Underground trains tested exceeded 30C, the limit for transporting livestock long distances
• UK sends largest royal navy presence to Baltic Sea in over 100 years in show of power to RussiaBritish-led expedition involving seven countries takes place close to Moscow's exclave in Kaliningrad
• Putney station closed after report of man with knife on tracks, police sayOfficers 'currently engaging' with suspect at scene

Times Online

• Summer is here — and the cost of holiday flights is suddenly sky high [Subscription]If you live in Scotland and have yet to book a sunshine break, brace yourself: some air fares more than doubled this weekend after schools finished for the summer. On the bright side, families could save a four-figure sum by departing from airports in northern England instead.
• Take the train or catch the bus — FirstGroup boss Matthew Gregory must get on track [Subscription]Just like Boris Johnson, New York hedge fund Coast Capital, which last week failed to take the wheel at FirstGroup, likes buses. Well, so long as they are yellow. And in North America.
• Jaguar’s new electric XJ to be built in Birmingham [Subscription]Car giant defies gloom with huge investment
• Northern’s Pacer trains are even late to scrapyard [Subscription]They are the transport that every commuter dreads seeing. The Pacer trains, built in the 1980s but still used across northern England, were meant to disappear by the end of this year.
• Careful drivers’ addresses are used in ‘ghost’ insurance scam [Subscription]Fake brokers are targeting drivers looking for a cheap deal and selling them invalid policies linked to ‘safe’ addresses

Mail Online

• Royal Navy officer arranges for a £20m military helicopter to visit pupils from private school (including his own) - at the taxpayers' expenseA Royal Navy officer whose children attend a private school in west London gave pupils a treat by arranging for a military helicopter to visit them - albeit at the taxpayer's expense.

London Evening Standard

• Captain of rescue ship is arrested after docking on Italian island with 40 migrantsThe captain of a migrant rescue ship has been arrested after docking on an Italian island without permission after a two-week standoff with officials.
• Travel misery for Londoners as rail track temperatures rise to 50CLondoners have faced travel misery today as the temperature of rail tracks rose to about 50C, on the hottest day of the year so far.
• Putney station: Trains halted after 'armed police' swarm on west London station after reports of a man with a knife

North Wales Live

• Flight emergency declared on board Virgin Atlantic plane flying over North Wales - recap The Boeing 787 is taking passengers from Los Angeles to London's Heathrow Airport
• This 90 year-old railway volunteer has been reunited with a wagon he built more than six decades agoThe small trolley was built by a volunteer in 1954 - and he was on hand to greet the vehicle on its return to Tywyn

Other Regional Press

• This week's Politics File with Ian Craig: £114 million down the drain - and for what?WHEN the M4 relief road was scrapped we learned £114 million has been spent on the project, despite not a single yard of tarmac being laid.

EIN News Subscription

• Berlin Brandenburg: The airport with half a million faults … copyright Jim Frank No passengers have ever emerged from … But they are using data from other airports, elsewhere in Berlin. … hubs in all Central Europe." Image copyright Getty … this airport's story, says Mr Gerkan wrote disdainfully about passengers …