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

Thursday, 16 November 2023

BBC News

• Stagecoach cancels buses over Cambridge roadworksA bus company has said "unprecedented" amounts of roadworks in a city are forcing it to cancel services.
• No extra cash for Ferguson shipyard modernisationMinisters reject a request for £25m to buy new equipment to raise productivity at the nationalised shipyard.
• Alstom: Train manufacturer puts 1,300 jobs at risk in DerbyThe manufacturer says its factory in Derby has no confirmed work beyond the first quarter of 2024.

Department for Transport

• New £2 million competition launched to help decarbonise local transportUK businesses can apply for up to £500,000 to run pioneering trials that tackle local transport challenges.

Financial Times

• Alstom pursues asset sales after warning on cash flowChief executive of French train maker says company will also consider capital increase
• Cost of HS2 rail link jumps by £3bn in a monthPrice tag for high-speed London to Birmingham line is raised to £57bn just weeks after previous big increase

STV

• New bus plans for ’isolated’ community criticised amid ’looming crisis’The council agreed to undertake a full review of its subsidised bus routes to address unreliable and infrequent provision in Ratho and other under-served areas after timetables were slashed due to driver shortages.

The Guardian

• Train maker Alstom puts more than 1,300 jobs at risk in DerbyFrench manufacturer says it needs to raise cash from investors because of lack of new orders

Times Online

• Edinburgh bus tracker can’t give arrival timesFlood of complaints from passengers — but expensive system won’t be up and running until next year
• Alstom: HS2 train supplier puts 1,300 jobs at risk [subscription]More than 1,300 train manufacturing workers in Derby have been given notice that they will be out of a job early in the new year after a lack of new rolling-stock orders from the government and the delay in HS2 helped to plunge their French employer, Alstom, into crisis.

City AM

• ’True cost’ of cutting HS2 short must be investigated, MPs toldSenior rail industry officials have called for an investigation into the “true costs” of cancelling the northern leg of HS2 ahead of a parliamentary hearing on the project.

Daily Record

• Lanark bus station will be re-furbished following council approvalAn application to re-engineer the town’s bus station has been approved

This is Money

• More than 1,300 jobs at risk at UK's biggest train factoryMore than 1,300 jobs could be axed at the UK’s largest train factory amid a shortage of demand for rolling stock.

Local Government

• Council responds on plans to end rolling stock production in the cityStatement from Leader of Derby City Council, Councillor Baggy Shanker on the future of Alstom’s train manufacturing within Derby.

Sky News

• 1,300 jobs at risk at Alstom's Litchurch Lane train-making plant in DerbyThe redundancies are part of Alstom's plan to cut around 1,500 jobs across its global operations.

Birmingham Post

• Train operator Northern faced losses of almost £600m without Government helpNorthern is owned by the Department for Transport after previous operator Arriva Rail North had its franchise terminated at the end of February 2020.

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• How Keighley and Worth Valley Railway was saved and rebornSTRETCHING for five miles, the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (KVWR) is among the most popular preserved lines in Britain.

London Evening Standard

• Central line: £500m train refurbishment includes CCTV cameras and new seatsThe Central line is undergoing a £500m transformation – with the first refurbished train entering service by the end of November.

Bucks Free Press

• Milton Keynes: Driverless bus trial starts in cityAn autonomous bus will transport passengers in Bucks as part of a 'complex' trial.

Other Regional Press

• CCTV cameras to be in place in BCP bus stops and hubsCCTV cameras will monitor the conurbation’s busiest bus stops and transport hubs in a bid to tackle antisocial behaviour (ASB).
• Inside London Underground workshop as 'failing' Central line trains given £500m overhaulThe London Underground's Central line trains are undergoing a huge half a billion pound renovation. Engineers are stripping stock to its bones to ensure a 'smoother' to ride and help combat crime.
• New Torquay railway station gets the go-ahead - but without car parkTorquay’s new railway station has been given the go-ahead – despite having no car park. On-street parking spaces near the new station at Edginswell – already in demand – will have to cope with any extra traffic the new station creates.

Train Operators

• LNER And CALM Lift Nation With Positive News Ahead Of Mental Health Awareness DayLondon North Eastern Railway and suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) unveil a new train named ’You Belong’ and the ’News Against Living Miserably’ news stand in Newcastle Central Station.

New Civil Engineer

• Transport secretary says there will be a ’carefully thought through programme’ for selling HS2 landTransport secretary Mark Harper has said claims of a “fire sale” of previously safeguarded land for High Speed 2 (HS2) are “nonsense” and that the government will sell it in a “proper way” that will “deliver value for the taxpayer”.

Rail Advent

• Beverley’s historic footbridge back in use after restorationA regular passenger at Beverley Station, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was the first person to cross the tracks using a newly-restored footbridge.

Rail Business Daily

• Major upgrades to railway in YorkshireNetwork Rail is to carry out major engineering work between Doncaster, Selby and York which will deliver reliability upgrades and a safer, more resilient railway for passengers.
• Rail Industry agrees new framework to meet sustainability challengesThe Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) has launched the Sustainable Rail Blueprint, a new framework to support the rail industry in Great Britain make efficient progress on environmental and social sustainability challenges.

Route One (Bus and Coach)

• Guy Opperman MP gets coach and bus minister briefGuy Opperman MP has been appointed Under-Secretary of State for Transport and taken on responsibility as minister for coach and bus as part of the roads and local transport brief.

Other News Sources

• No more (Lord in) waiting for Davies as Vere departsLord Davies of Gower has been appointed as a junior minister in the Department for Transport, replacing long-serving minister Baroness Vere.
• Anti-fraud champion MP named as aviation ministerResponsibility for aviation at the Department for Transport has been handed to Anthony Browne following the departure of Baroness Vere to the Treasury.
• LNER says it will invest cash elsewhere after portico plans were rejectedChanges to the entrance portico at York train station were rejected by the council’s planning committee last week as they told LNER to come up with a better scheme.
• Siemens Energy, Alstom and the Perils of Cross-Border M&ADecarbonization is a massive opportunity, but it entails huge risks, which have now come to bear at two European industrial giants.