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

Monday, 17 December 2018

BBC News

• MPs want halt to smart motorway rollout over safety concernsThe group backed campaigners who say having no hard shoulder puts motorists and recovery workers at risk.
• Christmas traffic: Where to avoid on the roads and railTraffic will be busiest on Thursday and Friday before rail engineering and strikes cause cancellations.
• HS2: MPs had 'enormously wrong' cost estimate, says whistleblowerA former HS2 boss says an early cost estimate MPs had was wrong by hundreds of millions of pounds.

Department for Transport

• Aviation 2050 — the future of UK aviation consultation: sustainable growth noise reportsReports about sustainable growth and aviation noise, supporting documents for the Aviation 2050 consultation.

Times Online

• Aviation strategy promises more flights and bigger airports [Subscription]inisters are paving the way to expand airports and create hundreds of flight paths amid warnings that demand for air travel will soar by a third in the next 12 years.
• London Tube drivers earning £100,000 a year [Subscription]Pay packets of some Tube drivers have risen above £100,000 despite claims that their jobs have become easier.
• Festive travel ‘will be worst in years’ [Subscription]Scotland faces the worst Christmas travel chaos for years with 2.5 million cars on the roads, 400 roadworks, rail engineering work affecting Hogmanay revellers, and airport delays.
• HS2 chiefs accused of ‘robbing’ property owners to slash costs [Subscription]Bosses at HS2 have been accused of deliberately undervaluing homes and land needed for the £56 billion line in an attempt to cut costs.

City AM

• Downing Street denies reports of preparing no-deal Brexit holiday warningsDowning Street has denied reports that the government is to suggest families do not book holidays after 29 March amid preparations for a no-deal Brexit.
• Downing Street denies reports of preparing no-deal Brexit holiday warningsDowning Street has denied reports that the government is to suggest families do not book holidays after 29 March amid preparations for a no-deal Brexit.
• Early cost estimates for HS2 were wildly inaccurate says former insiderA former insider at rail project HS2 has said that the early land and property cost estimate considered by MPs was “enormously wrong”.
• The age of the electric car? Not before we talk about metalsSINCE exuberance for electric vehicles (EVs) started to gain traction in recent years, there has been no shortage of bullish forecasts predicting that the end of the internal combustion engine is nigh.
• Exclusive: Aberdeen Standard backs controversial £1bn bid for Crossrail fleetAberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) is backing a controversial £971m bid to acquire a fleet of 70 Elizabeth Line trains from Transport for London (TfL), City A.M. can reveal.

The Mirror

• Fury over Boxing Day rail shutdown as only FIVE train operators to run servicesMore than 330 rail projects are planned between December 22 and January 3

This is Money

• Owner of online rail ticketing firm Trainline comes under fire over three-year tax dodgeThe owner of online ticketing firm Trainline has failed to pay corporation tax since it was bought by a US private equity house three years ago.

Bristol Live

• This Bristol Airport flight is ranked among Europe’s ‘most disrupted’ tripsA flight that operates daily between Prague and Bristol has been ranked among Europe’s “most disrupted”.

Liverpool Echo

• Revealed: When Mersey commuters will get contactless and ticketless travelRail passengers will be able to use their bank cards to pay for journeys like in other parts of the country

London Evening Standard

• Severn bridges: Final day of charges to cross between England and South Wales as tolls scrappedSunday marks the final day motorists will have to pay to cross the two Severn bridges between south Wales and south-west England as the tolls are set to be removed after 52 years
• National Rail Facebook alerts: how to sign up for personal travel updates on delayed and cancelled trainsRail passengers in the UK are now able to receive alerts on Facebook Messenger when their train is delayed or cancelled.
• London Tube drivers 'earn £100,000 a year', new figures revealThe salaries of some London Tube drivers are now higher than £100,000, more than most airline pilots, new data has revealed.

Yorkshire Post

• Shorter train delays now trigger rail pay outs by NorthernRail passengers can now claim compensation from train operator Northern when their journeys are delayed by as little as 15 minutes, Rail Minister Andrew Jones has announced.

Cambridge News

• 'Children crying' after passengers stranded in cold amid Great Northern Cambridge train chaosThe rail operator has responded after hundreds were left stranded in the cold

Rail Magazine

• Improved compensation for Northern passengersNorthern passengers can now claim compensation for 15 minute delays. This is an extension of the scheme that was available previously for delays of 30 minutes or more. Passengers can now claim compensation worth 25% of the single fare if delayed between 15 and 29 minutes.
• Testing of new Greater Anglia trains underwayThe first Stadler bi-mode unit for Greater Anglia made its main line debut in the early hours of December 15, when it ran between Diss and Trowse Junction (near Norwich).

Other News Sources

• HS2 could cut costs by reducing trains' speed, Tory peer admitsLord Young made remarks in House of Lords debate about price of £56bn project