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

Wednesday, 09 September 2020

BBC News

• How travellers are adapting to London's new commuteSlowly and gradually, it seems passengers are returning to public transport albeit that their confidence may be fragile.
• Rail firms stress safety as more train services resumeTrain operators bring back 90% of pre-Covid service but safety measures mean a different look.
• Uber pledges all-electric fleet by 2040The transportation company says it has a
• A68 at Fala: The collapsed road rebuilt in under a monthImages show the scale of the operation to get traffic back on the A68 from the Borders to Edinburgh.
• Borders Railway: 'The line has re-energised our community'How has the return of a train service after more than 40 years affected one small Scottish village?
• British Airways passengers 'stunned' over cash refunds stand-offPassengers have been told they had accepted vouchers for cancellations so cannot get their cash back.

Department for Transport

• Supercharging the future of driving this #WorldEVDayGovernment announces ambitious plans on World Electric Vehicle Day.
• Restoring Your Railway Fund: successful bidsListing of all the successful applications made to the Restoring Your Railway Fund.

Financial Times

• British Airways owner suffers big shareholder revolt over payMore than 20% of investors vote against remuneration of outgoing IAG chief and other executives
• Hydrogen takes a back seat to electric for passenger vehiclesEmissions-free trucks seen as the future for fuel cell tech as carmakers focus on EVs
• Electric air taxis face turbulence before take-offNascent industry faces regulatory challenges it can transform our skies
• Electric technology slow to set sail in marine industryBattery weight restricts use to ferries and shorter routes, but a sea change is on the horizon

The Guardian

• Air pollution causes 3m lost working days per year in UK, says CBIAnalysis finds work absences related to poor air are costing Britain about £600m annually Polluted air in the UK causes 3m working days to be lost every year owing to people getting sick or taking time off to care for sick children, new research suggests.Cutting air pollution and meeting the World Health Organization standards would benefit the economy by about £1.6bn a year, by improving productivity, according to the analysis carried out by the CBI. About 17,000 premature deaths of working age people each year would be prevented by meeting the guidelines. Continue reading...

Times Online

• Tech stocks rout grows with Tesla falling 21% [subscription]The rout in American technology stocks intensified yesterday with Tesla losing more than $100 billion off its value after the electric carmaker was excluded from the S&P 500.
• Halfords keeps show on road with cycling boom [subscription]Problems with using public transport since the start of the pandemic have prompted a rise in demand for car services and a surge in bike sales at Halfords, although the company has warned that profits could have a “natural fall-off” later this year.

City AM

• TfL commissioner Andy Byford: Getting the capital moving again OpinionAndy Byford, London’s transport commissioner, outlines what he has been doing to make TfL services ready for people to use them again.
• Four challenges facing new BA owner IAG's boss Luis GallegoTaking over a multinational corporation is a daunting prospect even at the best of times, but when the corporation is in a sector that is currently undergoing its worst ever crisis, the challenge takes on several extra layers of difficulty.
• Business leaders back switch to airport testingThe majority of UK business leaders believe the government should scrap the current quarantine regime on air travel and replace it with airport testing, new data has shown.

Birmingham Mail

• Mum's fury as disabled son misses first day of school when bus 'abandons' himEmma Louise from Kings Heath said she isn't the only parent to be let down by the council's Travel Assist service

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• How Bradford will change with Emergency Active Travel Scheme THE NEXT steps have been taken in a £2.9million programme to make Bradford's roads more suitable for travel by bike, on foot and via public transport.

Sheffield Star

• MPs support Sheffield taxi drivers who say trade is "on its knees" since Covid-19Sheffield MPs have asked railway bosses to stop charging taxis to wait at the station after drivers said the trade was "on its knees" following coronavirus.

Cambridge News

• Amazon's new driverless delivery service means more hiring in CambsThe new team will focus on developing Amazon Scout for use globally
• Driver caught going 111mph in A14 roadworks as cameras rake in up to £4mNew figures show that A14 speed cameras are among the most profitable in Cambridgeshire

Other Regional Press

• Borders Railway’s fifth birthday sparks renewed calls for extensionIt’s now five years since the opening of the Borders Railway, and its success since then is being touted as evidence of the need for it to be extended into England.
• Are the Department for Transport going to axe the Aylesbury to Milton Keynes leg of the East West Rail link?An insider who has worked at East West Rail claims the Department for transport are set to axe the Aylesbury to Milton Keynes route of the rail link.
• Cycle lanes could potentially be added to two Dorchester roads CHANGES could be made to Dorchester’s Fairfield Road and Bridport Road to make them safer for cyclists and pedestrians.

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• Rail firms stress safety as more train services resumeRail firms are reassuring travellers major efforts have been taken to ensure their safety as services increase. Trains in England, Wales and Scotland were up to 90% of normal levels by Monday as schools reopen and people are encouraged to return to work. Rail firms said anecdotal evidence suggested a slight increase in numbers but it was too soon for exact figures. West Midlands Trains' Francis Thomas said there were
• Passengers and freight to benefit from 21st century signalling upgrade in ManchesterTens of millions of pounds is being invested into Manchester’s railway signalling system to improve journeys for passengers and freight. Equipment which is nearly 40 years old will be replaced as part of the Great North Rail Project. The £36m work by Network Rail will install the latest digital technology to improve reliability and safety on this important route into Manchester. The upgrade started in August and will be complete in autumn 2021. Roisin Nelson, sponsor for Network Rail, said: “This multi-million-pound Great North Rail Project investment into signalling on o...

New Civil Engineer

• Hammersmith Bridge | TfL took six months to provide info on temporary crossingTransport for London (TfL) took almost six months to provide the government with requested information about Hammersmith Bridge, letters between Lords and MPs reveal.
• DfT must work more closely with transport watchdogThe Department for Transport (DfT) needs to work more closely with Transport Focus, according to recommendations made in a review of the transport watchdog.
• Northern Powerhouse Rail will have ‘spades in the ground’ in four yearsNorthern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) will have “spades in the ground” in 2024/25, according to Transport for the North (TfN) NPR director Tim Wood.
• Bechtel gets court date for HS2 Old Oak Common contract disputeBechtel has been given its day in court to appeal the award of High Speed 2 Ltd’s (HS2 Ltd’s) £1bn Old Oak Common station construction partner contract.

Rail Technology Magazine

• SWR awards £5m in community improvement schemes A total of £5m in funding is now set to benefit 67 local schemes supported by the South Western Railway Customer and Communities Improvement Fund (CCIF). Designed to help boost the local economy and recovery, SWR invited bids from its CCIF and today (8 Sept) the triumphant projects from...
• Network Rail engineers reopen bridge ahead of schedule Following a fast response by Network Rail engineers, a Cambridgeshire bridge has reopened to rail services ahead of schedule after it was hit by a lorry yesterday (7 Sept). The lorry caused widespread damage to the bridge in Coldhams Lane, Cambridge and the rail line was expected to be closed...
• Network Rail begin work to recover railway at Stonehaven This week Network Rail are beginning the careful procedure of recovering the carriages involved in the tragic accident that occurred on the 12th of Aug at Stonehaven. The ScotRail service derailed after striking a landslip and heartbreakingly, three lives were lost. Drive Brett McCullough...

Railnews

• Work starts to clear wreckage from Carmont derailment Work to clear the line and restore train services through the site of the fatal derailment at Carmont near Stonehaven in north-east Scotland last month is beginning this week. Network Rail said a 600-tonne crawler crane is being used to remove the derailed vehicles, but this could only be done after a ˜massive amount of work at the site™. Network Rail and its contractors have built a 900-metre road and temporary bridges over farmland so that the crane could be brought to the site.

Railway Gazette

• Class 230 variants approved for passenger serviceUK: The Office of Rail & Road has given authorisation for battery and diesel-battery versions of Vivarail’s Class 230 D-Train multiple-units to be used in passenger service.
• Class 230 variants approved for passenger serviceUK: The Office of Rail & Road has given authorisation for battery and diesel-battery versions of Vivarail’s Class 230 D-Train multiple-units to be used in passenger service.

Other News Sources

• Lufthansa makes case for expanding airport Covid testing schemeLufthansa has disclosed that 150,000 passengers were monitored for Covid-19 at the Frankfurt airport testing facility it opened in late June with Fraport and Centogene, and about 1% of samples taken over the last six weeks gave a positive result for the disease.
• Road closures still to come in Brighton under School Streets schemeMORE road closures are still yet to come into force under a scheme to create extra space at school gates, despite pupils having already returned.