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

Tuesday, 11 May 2021

BBC News

• West Midlands Railway sent staff fake bonus email in cyber-security testA union criticised the firm for a
• Hundreds of jobs promised in £570m HS2 Curzon Street Station dealMayor Andy Street says the project will deliver
• Greater Manchester mayor accelerates franchise bus network planAndy Burnham says he will bring Greater Manchester's bus network back under public control in 2024.
• Car insurance: 170,000 claims linked to 'crash for cash' gangsVillagers are advised to be vigilant about Bradford and Birmingham, where scam hotspots are located.
• Boeing's 737 Max aircraft under scrutiny againBoeing's 737 Max is under scrutiny again, months after being cleared to fly by US regulators.

ITV News

• Multi-million pound contract confirmed to build Birmingham's new HS2 station at Curzon StreetThe company running HS2 have confirmed a team made up of construction giants Mace and Dragados will build Birmingham’s new city centre high speed railway station at Curzon Street.

Financial Times

• Commodities boom sends bulk shipping costs to decade highsChina’s ‘insatiable appetite’ for iron ore is key factor in surge in dry bulk index

The Guardian

• Train firm's worker bonus email is actually cybersecurity testWest Midlands Trains workers discover email promising one-off payment is phishing simulation test. A rail union has hit out at a cynical and shocking stunt after a train company emailed staff to promise a bonus to workers who had run trains during the pandemic only to reveal it was in fact a test of their cybersecurity awareness.West Midlands Trains emailed about 2,500 employees with a message saying its managing director, Julian Edwards, wanted to thank them for their hard work over the past year under Covid-19.

The Telegraph

• Hitachi told to pay compensation bill for rail chaos [subscription]LNER to bring two InterCity 225 trains back into service later this week following mass cancellations due to faulty rolling stock

Times Online

• Weeks of rail disruption loom after cracks found in trains [subscription]Disruption to railway services after cracks were found in a fleet of trains is likely to continue for weeks, passengers have been told.

City AM

• Re-elected Khan already caught in the middle as RMT union threatens tube strike over Night Tube jobsThe RMT union is raining on Sadiq Khan’s re-election celebrations with threats of industrial action if Transport for London doesn’t The post Re-elected Khan already caught in the middle as RMT union threatens tube strike over Night Tube jobs appeared first on CityAM.

Birmingham Post

• Hitachi Rail continues investigations into cracks on trainsTrains assembled in County Durham have been withdrawn from services after problems were discovered

Bolton News

• Re-elected Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham puts 'transport revolution' at centre of plans RE-ELECTED Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has put a transport revolution in the region at the centre of plans for his second term.

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• Stored InterCity 225 train brought back into service as safety checks on Azumas continue LNER will bring an InterCity 225 train back into service tomorrow as part of contingency plans to cover for reduced availability within its Azuma Class 800 fleet.
• Bid for 'zero carbon' bus fleet for West YorkshireWEST Yorkshire is likely to make a bid for the Government to help fund a zero carbon bus fleet for the region.

Bristol Live

• The e-scooter glitch frustrating people in BristolIs this a case of Schrödinger’s scooter?

Edinburgh Evening News

• Scotland-London rail disruption due to train cracks to last ’for a number of weeks’Disruption to Scotland-London rail services due to cracks in trains is expected to continue for weeks.

London Evening Standard

• Owners given guidelines to prevent lorries being used in terror attacksThe new rules require operators to carry out checks of drivers’ references to identify links to criminality.
• Barrister fined £5,000 for contempt of court over leak of Heathrow Airport expansion rulingAn activist lawyer found in contempt of court for deliberately leaking a Supreme Court judgment on the expansion of Heathrow Airport has been fined £5,000.

Northern Echo

• LNER rail disruption could last WEEKS after cracks found in trainsRAIL services on London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which serves the North-East, are being disrupted for a third day due to cracks in trains - and it's likely to last weeks.

The York Press

• Fewer cars, more bikes and autonomous vehicles - York transport visionYORK'S transport system could be transformed by 2030, with fewer people owning cars and more space for cyclists, under the council's vision for the city.

Cambridge News

• LNER disruption to continue to affect Peterborough to London route this weekThe Hitcahi trains which have been taken out of service for checks are used as ‘Azuma’ services by LNER on the East Coast line

Other Regional Press

• 'Cycling has to be priority in Dorchester like in Weymouth' If you live in Weymouth, you are always pretty close to a cycle path, and quite a few of these are dedicated cycle paths or on low traffic routes.

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• Government calls on industry for action to resolve rail disruptionThe government has asked the rail industry to urgently set out a comprehensive plan to resolve prolonged disruption following the discovery of cracks in Class 800 Series Hitachi trains. The vast majority of GWR’s fleet and a significant number of LNER and TransPennine Express trains have been taken off the network to undergo a full and rigorous inspection, after checks of the Hitachi fleet early on Saturday (8 May 2021) morning first identified cracks on part of the chassis of some trains. To combat the expected continued delays, Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris has requested a compre...
• Historic Oxfordshire railway bridge set for new lease of lifeRestoration of the railway bridge in Horspath, will ensure its continued use for local residents in the future, whilst preserving an important piece of British heritage. The bridge was built in the mid-nineteenth century - during the reign of Queen Victoria - as part of the Princes Risborough to Oxford line and was in use until the 1960s when a decline in passengers led to a decommissioning of the line. Recent surveys revealed a number of structural concerns, including the ongoing deterioration of the bridge parapets, or walls. The damage worsened over time and the bridge continued to lean ...
• New guidance published to prevent use of vehicles as weapons in terror attacksNew guidance designed to prevent commercial vehicles, including vans, lorries, buses, coaches and even cranes, from being used as weapons in acts of terrorism has been published. The standard, which has been published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) and sponsored by the Department for Transport, sets out a raft of security measures to prevent criminals and terrorists from accessing commercial vehicles. To meet the new requirements, operators must: • improve their knowledge of potential risks and determine which of those risks apply to their business • develop a security...

New Civil Engineer

• Could Oxfordshire rail bridge restoration spark wider review of plans to demolish historic rail assets?Highways England has confirmed plans to restore a mid-19th century rail bridge in Horspath after it was named by HRE Group as one of 24 structures at risk of demolition by the roads operator.
• Crossrail begins running trains through Central London tunnelsCrossrail has officially entered trial running on the central section of the London railway line.
• HS2 bosses begin ’resequencing’ construction handovers to keep project on trackHS2 Ltd’s board has identified the handover between construction contractors and systems integration partners as “key” to avoiding programme delays and cost overruns on the first phase of the high speed rail project between London and Birmingham.
• Heathrow restarts third runway house purchasing programmeHeathrow Airport’s controversial third runway received a boost this month with the airport resuming the purchasing of houses close to the proposed runway.

Transportxtra

• Over 1,000 more bike bays installed at Greater Anglia stationsTrain company Greater Anglia has installed more than 1,000 new cycle spaces across its network over the past 12 months.

Other News Sources

• Hitachi taking “safety first approach” to returning GWR and LNER fleets to operationHITACHI is continuing to work alongside Britain’s independent regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to ensure long-distance fleets operated by Great Western Railway (GWR) and London North Eastern Railway (LNER) are safe to return to passenger service.
• Rail industry sets out key priorities for Queen’s SpeechThe Railway Industry Association (RIA), the voice of the UK rail supply community has set out its key priorities ahead of the Queen’s Speech tomorrow.
• Hull Trains confirms plans for extra Grantham services as they resume after safety checksThe rail operators has also issued a reminder to say its services are running as normal following the successful completion of stringent safety checks over the weekend.
• More than £1bn apprenticeship levy money goes unspentThousands of opportunities to train new manufacturing and engineering apprentices were missed last year as £1.039bn in apprenticeship levy funds expired.
• Back public transport to help high streets and avoid gridlock, businesses warn PMAn unprecedented coalition of organisations representing shops, offices, restaurants, venues, public transport providers and trades unions has written to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, urging him to encourage people back on to buses and trains as restrictions are lifted. A failure to get people back onto public transport risks towns and cities where people are more reliant on buses, trams and trains being left behind, they say.
• Huge decrease in UK’s Air Passenger Duty revenue shows aviation’s declineThe Airport Operators Association (AOA) in the UK is citing the dramatic fall in Air Passenger Duty revenues as further evidence of the damage to aviation caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.