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

Monday, 17 February 2020

BBC News

• Heathrow Airport apologises for IT failure disruptionThe airport says the
• Grant Shapps: Government 'not involved' in China-HS2 talksThe transport secretary's remarks follow reports that China offered to build the line in five years.

The Guardian

• Transport secretary denies he spoke to China about HS2Grant Shapps says apart from a letter from Beijing’s railway-builder no direct talks have taken place

Times Online

• National infrastructure is too important to be left to the government [subscription]If you were designing a system to commission and manage national infrastructure projects, it wouldn’t look much like how the UK does it today. Decisions about whether to go ahead with projects that will not be completed for another twenty years are made by governments elected for five years.
• Grant Shapps denies knowing of Chinese offer to build HS2 [subscription]The transport secretary has played down suggestions that the Chinese state railway company could be called in to rescue the HS2 high-speed rail line.

City AM

• Rail franchising model 'set to be scrapped' in coming weeksBoris Johnson is set to dramatically overhaul the nation’s rail network by scrapping the rail franchise model and capping profits by private providers.

Mail Online

• HS2 must be made using BRITISH steel say unionsPrime Minister Boris Johnson last week gave the green light to the £106billion project, despite criticism of cost overruns and delays. It will require an estimated two million tons of steel to build.

Birmingham Mail

• Grant Shapps plays down China 'rescuing' troubled HS2 amid rail scheme controversyThe China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) wrote to HS2 Ltd last month offering to complete the project in just five years at a significantly reduced cost
• Thanks for HS2 'green light' - now give us another £3.5 billion for Midlands Engine RailIt's been quite a week for Birmingham business and political leaders caught up in the 'battle for HS2'. Jane Haynes reflects on what happens next.

Bolton News

• Bolton MP's plea to nationalise the railwaysTHE recent nationalisation of Northern Rail should be the blueprint for taking the rest of the network into public ownership, Bolton South-East MP Yasmin Qureshi has said.

Get Surrey

• Where in Surrey you'd like to see a London Underground station and whyThe network already covers 250 miles across the capital, but many readers have called for an extension into the county

Other Regional Press

• Rail passengers warned of severe disruption on Weymouth-Waterloo line on Monday due to flooding Network Rail has announced there will be severe disruption on the Weymouth-Waterloo line on Monday due to flooding at Sway in the New Forest.

Other News Sources

• Pleas to PM to link East Lancs rail improvements to HS2BORIS Johnson has been told that improvements to rail links with East Lancashire must go hand in hand with the building of the new HS2 fast line from London to the North.