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

Friday, 10 December 2021

BBC News

• 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

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• Weather on the line halted £5.7bn Hitachi-built trains [subscription]Multibillion-pound trains were withdrawn from some of Britain’s busiest intercity lines after being damaged by the weather, an inquiry has found.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

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.

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

Other Regional Press

• 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.

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...

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

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
• 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.