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Monday, 06 May 2019

The Guardian

• Crossrail and other overoptimistic plans - LettersThe National Audit Office report (NAO blames Crossrail delay on ‘unrealistic’ management, 4 May) advances us part way towards an understanding of why so many major projects, of all sorts, are “delayed” and “over budget”. Whenever a gap opens up between plan and performance, the overwhelming tendency is to blame the managers/workers who “failed” to meet the target. In fact, the problem is often with overoptimistic, unrealistic plans in the first place. Crossrail is just one of many examples.
• Sleepless nights for cyclists on the Caledonian Sleeper trainI’m glad the new Caledonian Sleeper trains have all mod cons (Report, 30 April), but they’re not doing much to facilitate green travel.

The Herald

• Subway modernisation programme will bring many benefits to passengers - Councillor Dr Martin Bartos, Chair SPTThe current £288 million Subway modernisation programme will see the introduction of brand new state-of-the-art trains with a new communication and signalling system; the complete refurbishment of all 15 stations by 2020, of which 13 have already been done; and has introduced new Smartcard ticketing technology adopted by ScotRail and many bus operators across the west of Scotland. All of this is being achieved while we continue to transport around 40,000 passengers round the system daily.

The Scotsman

• Watch: First of Glasgow’s new driverless Subway trains arrives for testingTHE first of Glasgow’s new Subway fleet - which will make history as the first in the UK to run with no staff on board - has arrived for testing.

Times Online

• Crossrail drivers paid millions despite delays [subscription]Almost 500 train drivers are being employed by Crossrail on salaries of up to £59,000 even though the line’s opening has been delayed by two years.

London Evening Standard

• 'Brexit tensions partly to blame,' charity claims, as racist offences double on TfL rail network in space of four yearsRacist offences on Transport for London's (TfL) rail network have doubled in the space of four years, with a leading anti-hate crime charity saying Brexit tensions could be partly to blame.

Other Regional Press

• 'Be brave and get on with it' - Bath urged to build tram networkImagine a world in which Bath's roads were not clogged with traffic. A world where people compared the city to Vienna or Zurich.