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

Wednesday, 31 October 2018

BBC News

• Car and house insurance faces FCA probeThe City regulator is to investigate how home and car insurance policies are priced after finding "hidden" discrimination between customers.
• Police ground drones after reports they fall out of the skySome incidents in which DJI drones
• RMT union 'appalled' by human waste train planScotRail admits that only one of a new fleet of high-speed trains currently has a tank to collect human waste.
• BP profits double on higher prices and new oil fieldsThe oil giant reports its strongest quarterly results for five years, helped by higher prices and output.
• Sports Direct to close Evans Cycles stores in rescue dealBillionaire Mike Ashley is to make the closures as part of a deal to buy the struggling cycle chain.
• Japan bullet train stops 'scary' safety drillsWorkers at the Japanese company would crouch in trenches beside railway tracks as trains sped by.

ITV News

• Ely Bypass to open todayEly's long awaited bypass is due to open later.
• Bid to identify plane crash victims as search continues off IndonesiaRescuers are continuing their search of the sea following the Indonesia plane crash that killed 189 people.
• Vauxhall to recall more Zafira cars linked to firesITV News has learned that Vauxhall is about to recall more of its Zafira cars.

Times Online

• Safety alert over drones that drop out of sky after power failures [Subscription]A safety warning has been issued by the aviation watchdog after drones suddenly plummeted out of the sky because of a power failure.
• Ride sharing could rid Dublin of cars and cut pollution by third [Subscription]Ninety-eight per cent of car journeys in Dublin could be eliminated if commuters shared vehicles and used public transport more, a study has found.
• Cyclists accuse gardaí of ignoring dangerous overtaking [Subscription]Video footage of dangerous overtaking is not taken seriously by gardaí, cyclists have claimed.
• Irish firm lands €320m contract to build new Dublin runway [Subscription]Dublin airport has awarded the main contract for the construction of its new €320 million runway to a joint Irish-Spanish venture.
• Rail workers risk being sprayed with sewage due to upgrade delay [Subscription]Railway workers could be “sprayed with human waste” because high-speed trains being used as a stop-gap will go back to dumping sewage on the tracks.
• Lufthansa pays price for Air Berlin deal [Subscription]Profits at Lufthansa have dived, dragged down by the cost of soaring fuel prices, compensating passengers for cancelled and delayed flights and its acquisition of part of the failed Air Berlin.
• Bentley skids to €137m loss [Subscription]Falling sales, investments in electrifying its luxury cars and a delay in getting its upgraded £150,000 Continental to market have sent Bentley skidding deep into the red.
• Passengers tell of panic on Lion Air flight before crash [Subscription]Passengers aboard the Lion Air Boeing jet the day before it crashed in the sea off Jakarta have described panic during a “roller coaster” journey from Bali.

Reuters News

• UK airlines hit out at higher levy on long-haul flightsBritain's aviation industry hit out at the government on Monday over its decision to increase a tax on long-haul flights, saying it made a mockery of the government's ambition for a 'Global Britain' after it leaves the European Union.
• Uber defends its business model over UK worker rightsUber defended its business model at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday in the latest stage of a long-running battle over the classification of its drivers as self-employed, a designation that entitles them to few workplace rights in Britain.

City AM

• Tube trouble: Four lines suspended as severe delays hit commutersFour Tube lines are part suspended this morning, with signal failures hitting commuters on their routes to work.

Mail Online

• Vauxhall recalls another 47,000 Zafiras over safety fears - just three years after calling back 234,000 of the family cars due to 'fire risk'Vauxhall are recalling 47,000 Zafiras that were excluded from a previous recall three years earlier which was meant to protect the vehicles from 'the risk of fire'.

Liverpool Echo

• Passengers on these Liverpool bus routes will soon see BIG improvementsThe improvements will see journeys sped up, boarding made easier and traffic signals improved

London Evening Standard

• TfL Tube delays: Commuters face travel chaos with severe delays across FOUR London Underground linesCommuters faced travel chaos on the Tube on Tuesday evening as delays hit four lines.

Wales Online

• Major new bypass proposed across the RhonddaThe plans would take traffic out of Treorchy to alleviate the 'long-standing congestion issues'

Cambridge News

• Three-month long road closures in place for construction of Ely Bypass underpassDrivers will be able to use the Ely bypass while the underpass is closed

East Anglian Daily Times

• The new 26-30 Railcard - All you need to knowThe new 26-30 Railcard could save festival-goers money on train fares to Chelmsford’s RiZe Festival or a night out in Norwich.

Other Regional Press

• Rail user groups demand answers from government over fare freezeRail user groups representing commuters from across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and South Cambridgeshire have demanded answers from the government over the rail fare freeze they are pushing for, saying that the points they raised to ministers were “lacking acknowledgement”.

C.N.N.

• Russia's only aircraft carrier damaged while under repair as floating dry dock sinksA hole was gouged in the deck of Russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, Tuesday when a crane fell on it while the vessel was undergoing repairs in the northern city of Murmansk, according to Russian state media.
• Lion Air crash: Investigators detect 'pings' which could lead to flight recordersIndonesian investigators searching for the flight data recorder of crashed Lion Air flight 610 have heard a transponder

Rail Technology Magazine

• Future Vivarail Class 230 trains for London Northwestern Railway delayed by technical issuesThe delivery of Vivarail’s Class 230 trains for the Marston Vale Line is behind schedule due to “technical issues” and will not be ready for their planned December introduction. West Midland Trains and Vivarail released a joint statement saying “both partners have worked...
• Crossrail 2 in the context of a national strategy London is a city synonymous with innovative infrastructure. The capital has prospered on the shoulders of great pioneers of engineering such as Marc Isambard Brunel and Sir Joseph Bazalgette, responsible respectively for the first Underground rail line and London’s elaborate sewer...
• Budget update: £291m for London's DLR and boost for Transforming Cities Fund The chancellor Phillip Hammond yesterday announced a boost in funding for London’s Docklands Light Railway and the Transforming Cities Fund. The DLR will receive £291m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund for support of essential investment, which is aimed at unlocking 18,000 homes...
• Budget: Hammond announces £37m for NPR and £20m for EWR The Chancellor Phillip Hammond has today announced additional funding for the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) and East-West Rail (EWR) projects. NPR, which will connect cities across the north of England, will receive £37m; and the EWR project will receive £20m to push forward its...
• Budget promises not enough to unlock rail and housing in Oxford-Cambridge Arc Philip Hammond’s Budget promises will not be enough to deliver the new transport links and homes needed in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc without intensive government efforts, warns the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). The chancellor revealed £20m extra development funding for the...
• Grayling's review can get rail devolution back on trackJonathan Bray, director of the Urban Transport Group, states that the government rail sector review offers the opportunity to put control of the railways back where it belongs. Last month, the government launched what it called a ‘root and branch’ review of the UK’s railways....

Cammax Limited

• Ensuring successful adoption in the era of SMART Public Transport [paid inclusion]Over recent years operators, councils and other stakeholders have invested heavily in attempts to modernise the UK public transport sector in what some commentators are labelling ‘the SMART revolution’.