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

Monday, 22 March 2021

BBC News

• Foreign holidays: Minister refuses to rule out Covid ban extensionDefence Secretary Ben Wallace warns that booking a trip abroad would be
• Coronavirus: Trams and light rail get extra £33m fundOperators in northern England and the Midlands get grant as they continue with low passenger numbers.

Department for Transport

• Further £33 million COVID-19 support funding announced for light rail and trams in the north and the MidlandsGovernment announces additional funding to support tram and light rail operators during the coronavirus pandemic.

Financial Times

• Unvaccinated sailors risk deepening global supply chain crisisShipping industry warns that half of world’s sailors are from countries where vaccine rollout is slow

The Guardian

• Allowing summer holidays abroad risks another lockdown, Johnson is warnedSage experts are worried about overseas breaks leading to rise in vaccine-resistant variants in UKCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageLifting the ban on foreign holidays in the coming months could risk another lockdown next winter, Boris Johnson is being warned, amid mounting alarm about a third wave of infections sweeping continental Europe.Scientific experts and opposition politicians are urging the government to be extremely cautious before loosening travel restrictions, with their concerns about the prevalence of new variants of the virus overseas increasingly share...

The Telegraph

• Billionaire Bamford gets taxpayer cash for green buses [subscription]The JCB heir's bus company is being backed by a new round of Government funding to try and slash carbon emissions

Times Online

• This Holyrood joker must take ScotRail seriously [subscription]t looks increasingly unlikely that the Edinburgh Festival will take place this summer. Still, in its absence it’s good to know that transport secretary Michael Matheson has already produced the winner for funniest joke of the year. In case you missed it, Matheson had the nation rolling in the aisles with his gag that taxpayers will get better value for money once the Scottish government takes over ScotRail next year.
• Exodus to countryside can’t be built on cars [subscription]City-dwellers relocating to villages and small towns could prove powerful allies in campaigns for better public transport
• Smart motorway radars fail to spot broken down cars [subscription]Ministers faced calls last night to suspend the smart motorways programme as it emerged that new safety technology installed to detect broken down cars may fail to spot at least one stranded vehicle in seven.

Birmingham Post

• New images show progress on £100m Space Park Leicester siteThe site could one day include a low-cost satellite production line

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• Work to two stretches of canal towpath to begin in Autumn WORK to improve the towpath at two sites of the Leeds Liverpool Canal is due to start in Autumn.
• 'Bold' vision for Northern Powerhouse Rail in Bradford to be set out today A BOLD vision is expected to be set out today as the case is ramped up for a Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) station in Bradford city centre.

Daily Post (North Wales)

• Ghost trains and deserted stations as Llangollen Railway at junction in historyCompany thousands of pounds in debt but enthusiasts hope to embark on new journey down the line to a brighter future

London Evening Standard

• Competition launched to halt rise in carbon emissions from shippingThe Department for Transport said its fund could lead to hydrogen-powered boats and electric chargepoints at ports across the UK.

Manchester Evening News

• Bus Wars, Greenwood's and orange double-deckers: What the colourful story of Manchester's buses reveals about the future of our transportReflecting on the long and winding road of Greater Manchester’s bus history, it’s clear that there are pros and cons to both regulation and a privatised system of running the buses
• Manchester's Metrolink tram network to get another £16m in Covid funding from government'The funding will support operators as they continue to face reduced revenues caused by low passenger numbers' - Metrolink is running at 80 per cent down

Northern Echo

• Paul Howell: My plans to get the region moving againONE of my key focus areas since becoming the MP for Sedgefield has been transport. This starts from a need to join our communities back together and create opportunities for all.

Yorkshire Post

• Grant Shapps' Northern Transport Acceleration Council identifies 100 key projects across the North that local leaders want to speed upThe new 'acceleration council' set up by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to speed up the delivery of major projects has identified more than 100 schemes across the North that it hopes to progress.

Cambridge News

• Ryanair issues updates to customers over summer holiday plansRyanair has extended its zero flight change fee

Other Regional Press

• £75m investment to get more people walking and cyclingActive travel schemes announced this week will receive a funding boost of more than £53m this year as part of further efforts to encourage healthy travel – with more than £20m to follow.
• Work on Newport footbridge to be completed by end of the yearWORK to prepare for a new city centre footbridge to replace an unpopular subway will be completed by the end of the year.

New Civil Engineer

• Ways to extend Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro to be explored Potential extensions to the proposed Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro (CAM) are to be developed as part of the project’s next steps.
• Resubmission of Lower Thames Crossing planning application misses 120 day targetIt has now been 122 days since Highways England pulled its Lower Thames Crossing plans, meaning Highways England has missed the target date for resubmission set by the project’s boss.
• Hammersmith Bridge | Temporary ‘double-decker’ proposal deemed technically feasiblePlans for a double-decker temporary crossing which would sit above the existing Hammersmith Bridge deck have been deemed technically feasible.
• Airport industry counts the cost of Covid one year on“Few could have imagined a world where holidays would be illegal” was one of the opening statements at a recent Transport select committee evidence session on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the aviation sector.

The Business Desk

• £33m more made available to keep Nottingham’s trams movingAnother £33m of emergency COVID-19 funding has been provided to support light rail and tram operators in Nottingham and Birmingham.

Other News Sources

• Consultation on Swansea Bay and West Wales Metro now openPEMBROKESHIRE people are being urged to have their say on improved transport links and infrastructure in south west Wales.
• Minister says plan to scale back HS2’s Euston station won't harm schemeAndrew Stephenson says cutting a platform would still allow for all planned services to run