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

Friday, 10 December 2021

BBC News

• Leeds Bradford Airport makes 2030 carbon neutral pledgeLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA) has pledged to become one of the first carbon neutral airports in the UK by 2030.
• Covid: Manchester Airport Group calls for review of travel rulesThe owner of Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports is calling for urgent action.
• Bus operators sought for Greater Manchester franchise networkGreater Manchester's buses will be run in a London-style system, as part of the Bee Network.
• Transport for London bans e-scooters and e-unicycles from networkThe devices will not be allowed on public transport even if they are folded and being carried.
• HS2 agrees £2bn deal to build UK's fastest trainsHitachi and Alstom will build more than fifty 225mph trains for the high speed network.

Department for Transport

• Government awards HS2 rolling stock contractNext generation of Britain’s high-speed bullet trains reaching speeds of over 200mph to be built on home soil.

Financial Times

• Go-Ahead shares slide after stock suspension warningTransport operator stripped of Southeastern franchise admits to ‘serious’ failings in railway business
• Hitachi and Alstom win £2.8bn trains contract for UK's high-speed railwayGerman manufacturer Siemens to take legal action against decision
• Airbus raises stakes in paint dispute with Qatar AirwaysEuropean aeroplane maker seeks independent legal review of A350 issues with Middle Eastern customer

The Guardian

• Suspending shares is embarrassing, the saga of Southeastern rail is seriousGo-Ahead is unlikely to be stripped of Thameslink franchise but has some explaining to do elsewhere

The Scotsman

• ScotRail's lack of Inter7City trains makes rail travel to Highlands a dismal prospect – Alastair DaltonHad we not been focused on preventing Storm Arwen from blowing us off the road, our first experience of driving the new section of A9 dual carriageway between Perth and Dunkeld would have increased the appeal of the road for family trips north.

The Telegraph

• Germany's Siemens abandons HS2 contract battle [subscription]Plus: The inside track on HS2's 200 metre-long £2bn fleet modelled on Japan's bullet trains

Times Online

• First-class rival lines up for Orient Express subscription]James Bond, Hercule Poirot and Hitchcock’s lady who vanished supposedly had only one Orient Express to travel on for their fictional adventures. Soon, well-off travellers can pick from competing versions of the celebrated train.
• Weather on the line halted £5.7bn Hitachi-built trains [subscription]Multibillion-pound trains were withdrawn from some of Britain’s busiest intercity lines after being damaged by the weather, an inquiry has found.
• FirstGroup diverted by Plan B rules [subscription]Boris Johnson’s Plan B, telling Britain’s workforce to work from home again, has weighed heavily on one of Britain’s leading passenger transport providers.
• Go-Ahead shares to be suspended as it reveals ‘serious errors’Trading in Go-Ahead shares will be suspended after the transport group warned that “serious errors” had led to its failure to return at least £25 million to the taxpayer from its operation of Southeastern trains.
• Go-Ahead board left rail group up the junction [subscription]Most rail derailments are abrupt affairs. Not at Go-Ahead. It prefers to come off the rails in slow motion, with each gory update putting another crater in the share price.

City AM

• Plan B to “inevitably impact” transport, stakeholders sayThe new set of restrictions outlined yesterday by the government will “inevitably impact” Transport for London (TfL), as more Londoners will be required to work from home.

Great British Railways Transition Team

• Whole Industry Strategic Plan – Call for EvidenceThe call for evidence launches on 9 December 2021 and will be open for eight weeks until 4 February 2022.

Birmingham Post

• Landmark £2bn HS2 train contracts awarded to Hitachi and Alstom joint ventureThe rolling stock deal is set to support 2,500 jobs across the UK
• Rolls-Royce to have cut 8,500 jobs by end of 2021 as restructure delivers savingsThe engineering firm reported gradual recovering civil aerospace and improved trading performance
• Leeds Bradford Airport plans to become carbon neutral in 2030Pledge comes as resident airline Jet2.com underlines commitment to greening up flights with 75 new planes

Bolton News

• Bus franchising call issued by transport chiefs for BoltonA CALL has been issued for operators to run bus services in Bolton and neighbouring Wigan.

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• Leeds Bradford Airport reveals plans to reach net zero by 2030LEEDS Bradford Airport has announced plans to become carbon neutral by 2030,

Liverpool Echo

• Clever logic behind every single Liverpool bus numberThere's a fascinating system that decides the number for every bus route

London Evening Standard

• Sadiq Khan: Government support needed to keep Tubes and buses runningSadiq Khan today made an 11th hour plea for additional Government help to keep the Tube and buses running.

Manchester Evening News

• Greater Manchester's bus franchising takes big step forwardExpressions of interest are now wanted from operators interested in running services in Bolton and Wigan.

Newcastle Evening Chronicle

• Hitachi factory in County Durham lands role in £2bn HS2 train building dealHS2 Ltd has confirmed the Hitachi and Alstom joint venture will build rolling stock, supporting 2,500 jobs

Yorkshire Post

• Leeds Bradford Airport boss says it will become net zero regardless of new terminal being approved or notThe boss of Leeds Bradford Airport has said that the business will become net zero by 2030 even if its plan for a new terminal building are knocked back.

Other Regional Press

• Electric forecourt at Gatwick Airport will be a UK first - and is the net zero carbon equivalent of a petrol stationA partnership between Gatwick Airport and sustainable energy company GRIDSERVE will build the Gatwick Electric Forecourt – an electric charging, net zero equivalent to a petrol station - that will be available to millions of passengers, commuters, staff, local residents and businesses that pass through the airport and its surrounding motorway network each year.
• Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins urges government to reverse rail cuts after HS2 controversyToby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, joined his Labour colleagues in a vote which urged the Government to reverse their decision to cut back rail improvements in the North and Midlands.
• Drivers must prepare for a 'bumper-to-bumper' Christmas getaway, warns AADrivers should expect long delays and some problems on major routes, says the AA, which expects millions of cars to take to the roads this Christmas.

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• TfL announces safety ban of e-scooters on transport networkTransport for London (TfL) has announced that all privately-owned e-scooters and e-unicycles, including those that can be folded or carried, will be banned on London’s transport network from Monday 13 December.    This is the result of safety concerns about these items following recent fires on TfL premises & services.   
• HS2 awards rolling stock contracts to Hitachi-Alstom joint ventureHS2 has confirmed that a Hitachi/Alstom JV has been awarded the contracts to build Britain’s next generation of high speed trains at their factories in Derby and County Durham in a major deal set to support 2,500 jobs across the UK.   The landmark contracts – worth around £2 billion – will see the JV design, build and maintain a fleet of 54 state-of-the-art high speed trains that will operate on HS2 - the new high-speed railway being built between London, the West Midlands and Crewe.  
• Transport for the North launches first regional Transport Decarbonisation StrategyA Transport Decarbonisation Strategy for the North of England - outlining the target of near-zero carbon emissions from surface transport by 2045 – has been launched today by Transport for the North (TfN).   It is the first time a regional strategy of this type has been produced, bringing together the region’s leaders to speak out with one voice on the climate emergency and how the transport sector must act to address the challenge.   It highlights the ambitions of the North of England in tackling carbon emissions, with the region aiming to go beyond national policy and t...
• Royal Mail partners with Ford to trial more sustainable deliveriesRoyal Mail and Ford have partnered to trial a new city-friendly approach to parcel delivery in Manchester.    The purpose of the trial was to examine whether multi-modal delivery using Ford’s routing software could help Royal Mail to increase its foot-based deliveries of larger parcels in urban areas.   Ford’s software helped Royal Mail to use fewer vans in the trial area. The software enabled several posties to make deliveries with one vehicle supporting them.   

Coach and Bus Week

• Eclipse busway extension ready for businessHampshire County Council’s £11.6 million project to lengthen the Eclipse rapid transit busway in Gosport has been completed and opened for service on 5 December.
• CPT launches coach decarbonisation taskforceThe Confederation of Passenger Transport has created an industry-wide coach decarbonisation taskforce to start to create the roadmap which will help operators decarbonise their fleets. Under the chairmanship of Ian Luckett of Lucketts Travel Group and National Express, and reporting to CPT’s Coach Commission, the taskforce’s aim is to bring together operators, manufacturers and other industry experts. It will start by reviewing and evidencing the challenges the industry faces to decarbonising the country’s coach fleet, building on the conclusions from the recent CPT coach decarbonisation conference.

New Civil Engineer

• Fifth of all train cancellations down to Network Rail infrastructure issuesA fifth of all train cancellations between July and September were due to issues with Network Rail infrastructure such as track and signalling problems, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has revealed.
• TfL tunnels boss outlines major projects on pause until funding is securedTransport for London (TfL) head of tunnels Farid Accha has admitted that many major projects face an “uncertain” future as the current funding agreement with the Department for Transport is coming to its end, with no new agreement yet confirmed.
• HS2’s £2bn train contracts finally awarded after Covid delays and legal wranglingHS2 Ltd has confirmed that a Hitachi/Alstom JV has been awarded the contracts to build high speed trains for the megaproject.

Rail Advent

• Transport for Wales awards contract to DB ESG for selective door operationThe contract will see DB ESG design and put in place manual Selective Door Operation systems for Transport for Wales

Route One (Bus and Coach)

• Wrightbus: Doubled production and 70% zero-emission in 2022Wrightbus will double its output to approximately 600 buses in 2022 and around 70% of them will be zero-emission, the Ballymena manufacturer has announced.
• NatEx UK Coach maintains five-star safety rating for eighth yearNational Express UK Coach has maintained its five-star rating from the British Safety Council for an eighth consecutive year.
• Enhanced Partnership importance for bus in England underlinedBus operators in England outside London must not underestimate the onus on them to collaborate with each other and local authorities (LAs) during Enhanced Partnership (EP) development as part of National Bus Strategy work. That was the message from the Department for Transport (DfT) at a recent Bus Strategy Forum meeting.

Other News Sources

• As more rail operators scrap first class seating, is this the end of the line for class-based train tickets?Greater Anglia is removing first class services on all but its London to Norwich line from next month, following the launch of single-class operator Lumo’s “classless” London to Edinburgh link
• When It Comes to Buses, Will Hydrogen or Electric Win?Clean transport needs clean vehicles. New power developments are crucial for a mass transit revolution, and each has pros and cons.
• Minister unveils plan to make West Midlands public transport safer for women and girlsTRANSPORT minister Trudy Harrison MP visited the West Midlands to find out about work being done to make the public transport network safer for women and girls.
• Transport Minister appears 'terrified' of seeming to be 'waging a war on the motorist' says Cycling UK as traffic likely to double by 2050Grant Schapps' government policy is to decarbonise without the need to "stop is driving", whilst Cycing UK and other experts say reducing car reliance is essential
• Siemens scraps legal challenge to British train orderZURICH (Reuters) - Siemens has scrapped a legal bid to halt the award of a $2.64-billion high-speed train project in Britain to rivals Alstom and Hitachi.