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

Saturday, 06 February 2010

BBC News

• West Highland line is voted the best rail journey in the worldThe West Highland line from Glasgow to Mallaig has been voted the best rail journey in the world.
• Tube workers end 24-hour strikeLondon Underground maintenance workers end the first in a series of 24-hour strikes in a row over rosters and outsourcing of work.
• Oil fuels UK producer prices riseThe prices of goods leaving UK factories rose at their fastest rate for 13 months in January, fuelled by the rising cost of oil.
• Toyota boss apologises for recallToyota President Akio Toyoda apologises for the recall of millions of cars and pledges to target quality control.
• BA's £50m loss beats expectationsBritish Airways says it made a loss of £50m ($79m) in the three months to December 2009, which was smaller than expected.

Financial Times

• Toyota president sorry for recallsAkio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor, apologised for defects that have resulted in the recall of more than 8m of its cars, adding that the issue had created a œcrisis situation� for the world™s top-selling carmaker, long renowned for its quality
• All aboard: Amphibian bus trialIt may look like it has taken a wrong turn but this is one of the first amphibious commuter buses in the world, writes Gill Plimmer . Stagecoach will trial the...
• BA reports surprise third-quarter profitThe UK flag carrier reports a small quarterly operating profit for the first time in more than a year, impressing analysts with what appears to be the strongest sign yet that the struggling flag carrier is finally heading for recovery

The Guardian

• Toyota handling of recall criticised¢ Fault was not classed as a safety issue one year ago¢ Car firm did not inform government until askedToyota's response to the potentially lethal accelerator fault which has caused cars to career out of control came under renewed attack tonight following an investigation which cast fresh doubt on the way this week's crisis was handled.The Guardian has established that:¢ Government officials said Toyota did not tell them about the problem until prompted.¢ Toyota decided the fault was not a safety issue when it received the first reports over a year ago.¢ A senior executive in charge of product ...
• The best British Isles road tripsFrom the Yorkshire Wolds to the Outer Hebrides and Ireland, the British Isles are a motorist's paradise. Here are some of our favourite routesThe Atlantic Highway, EnglandStart: Abandon the M5 at Bridgwater (J23) amid watercolour landscapes of the Somerset Levels heading west on the A39, my favourite UK driving road.Route (135 miles): It's easy: follow the A39, ignore your map/satnav and concentrate on stupendous views instead. On one side of the road are increasingly wild hills; on the other, some of Britain's best coastline.End: Bude's muddle of windy dunes, Victoriana and surfing marks the ...

The Independent

• Lawyer jailed over £6m airline scamA high-flying City lawyer who conned millions of pounds from her bank bosses to help a friend's ailing airline has been jailed for five years.

The Telegraph

• Toyota car recall: more than 350,000 UK vehicles called back in a week More than 350,000 cars have been recalled in Britain due to safety fears in less than a week, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
• Greg Dyke admits blame for road accident Greg Dyke, the former director-general of the BBC, has admitted careless driving over a crash which left a family dangling upside down in their upturned car.

Times Online

• British Airways likely to end business class on short-haulWillie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, has, in effect, called time on European business-class travel, saying that the service may not survive the recession.
• Toyota boss breaks silence over recall crisisToyota is in a œmoment of crisis� over the recall of eight million cars, the president of the world™s largest carmaker said yesterday, finally addressing a widely condemned refusal to break his silence on the issue.

Reuters News

• Abu Dhabi wealth fund buys into Gatwick AirportLONDON/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia), the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, said on Friday it had bought a stake in Gatwick Airport as it increased its exposure to infrastructure assets.

Daily Express

• BA profits in tailspin despite good quarterBRITISH Airways is heading towards record annual losses, despite a better than expected performance in the last three months of 2009.

Bolton News

• Councillors want talks on bus services TRANSPORT bosses are to be invited to a town council meeting to discuss bus problems in the area.

Daily Post (North Wales)

• Motorcyclist died after misjudging bend near PontblyddynA MOTORCYCLIST died after misjudging a bend and colliding with a car, an inquest was told yesterday.

London Evening Standard

• Toyota drivers face long wait to get ‘lethal’ fault fixedToyota admits it could be “several weeks” before Londoners are able to get cars with potentially lethal faults repaired
• Green light for Crossrail station at PaddingtonPlans to build a new Crossrail station at Paddington are approved by Westminster council

The Press and Journal (Aberdeen)

• Boost for air service on BarraHighlands and islands transport chiefs expressed confidence yesterday that air links to the Hebridean island of Barra will be guaranteed.
• West Highland train line is just the ticketTRAVELLERS on the west Highland train line have made a return trip “ voting the iconic journey between Glasgow and Mallaig as the world™s top rail journey for the second year in a row.
• New interactive website reveals grim toll of tragedy on our roadsRoad safety campaigners have turned to the internet to try to reduce the number of deaths on north and north-east country roads.

Wales Online

• Rail services in Wales closing quality gap with the rest of BritainTHE gap in the quality of rail services between Wales and the rest of the UK is closing, according to a new passenger survey.

The Economist

• Electric cars: A Netscape moment?Investors get out their chequebooks for electric-car start-upsTHE idea of the “Netscape moment”, a fund-raising that signals the spawning of a whole new industry, is dear to Silicon Valley types who think back fondly to the browser firm’s spectacular initial public offering in 1995. So it was not surprising that in late January Shai Agassi, a former software entrepreneur, greeted a $350m investment in his company, Better Place, led by HSBC, in just those terms. Better Place, based in Palo Alto, which hopes to be the leading infrastructure provider for the world’s growin...

Washington Post

• Apologetic Toyota looking to outside quality input NAGOYA/DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp's president apologized on Friday for safety problems and said the automaker would bring in outside experts to review quality controls, a highly unusual action for a company that has epitomized world-beating industrial standards.
• Japanese media criticize Toyota chief for response TOKYO -- Japanese media sharply criticized Toyota's president Saturday as offering a delayed and unconvincing explanation for the massive car recall that has sullied the world's biggest automaker and Japanese corporate icon.

Transport for London

• Pioneering green travel programme delivers 75 per cent increase in cycling Cycling in Sutton has dramatically increased and residents of the borough have also seen their green credentials boosted thanks to a major increase in the number of people taking the bus and a fall in the proportion of residents' journeys made by car.

Other News Sources

• AirTran chief believes legacy carriers will continue to shed US capacityAirTran Airways' chief believes legacy carriers will continue to shed seats in the U.S. market because they have had a hard time making money domestically.
• Buses must clean up or be bannedBUS operators in Barnsley could be banned from using the town's interchange, new bus stops or improved routes if they fail to comply with tough new standards.
• 23 MILES OF TRACK TO BE REPLACED ˜OVERNIGHT™
• NETWORK RAIL AWARDS KEY CONTRACT FOR £53M ANGLIA FREIGHT UPGRADE
• £18M RAIL UPGRADE WILL EASE TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN ELY
• £35M RAIL UPGRADE WILL EASE TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN IPSWICH
• Supermarket giant to convert waste into low carbon fuelA national supermarket chain has pledged to turn all of its food waste into electricity by 2012.
• Parking ticket victory after rail station 'blitz'Commuters were today celebrating victory after successfully overturning a raft of parking tickets handed out at a Lancashire railway station.
• Union wants answers from EurostarEurostar bosses have come under attack from the RMT union, which wants answers to questions raised by the disruption in December's snows.
• Floating bus to test the water for passenger serviceTransport group Stagecoach is set to trial an amphibious bus on the River Clyde in Scotland next week.
• Haulage fleets targetedHauliers have been hit by a nationwide crime wave of thieves stealing batteries, warns the Road Haulage Association. œEveryone working in the transport industry should be extra vigilant,� said RHA security manager Chrys Rampley. And she urges operators across theindustry to report any theft or attempted theft. œThieves are cutting through the security fences at transport depots [...]
• Baboo plans to be first into City with Embraer 190 Swiss carrier Baboo is aiming to be the first carrier to operate the Embraer 190 into London City Airport, with a service next week. While British...
• EU 'wise men' chief wants more rail, less road"We cannot avoid going back to the concept of railways. In the past, railways were a response to industrialisation and changing times, and will be so again in the future. I don't want to shock anyone, but the comparison can be used," said González as he collected a European Railway Award this week for his contribution to modernising the Spanish transport system. He said that compared to other alternatives, rail transport - both passenger and freight - is particularly suited to "Europe's dimensions and demographic density". ...
• Solar-powered hydrogen kit good for 10,000 miles driving a year Honda has unveiled a solar-powered hydrogen station for use by drivers at home, which can produce enough fuel to power its FCX Clarity fuel cell car for 25 miles of driving each day.read more
• Lord Adonis 'astonished' to be made transport secretaryLord Adonis became part of the New Labour inner circle by
• 2M Group Urges European Environement Commissioner Dimas To Take Urgent Action Against Heathrow PollutionThe UK Government could face daily fines after allowing air pollution at Heathrow to breach European limits.  That's the warning from the 2M group of local authorities opposed to Heathrow expansion “ of which the Royal Borough is a founder member “ amid claims that ministers have so far taken no action to improve air quality of the area despite previously admitting that nitrogen levels around the airport were above permitted levels. Cllr David Burbage, leader of the council and the Royal Borough's representative on the 2M Group said:  œMinisters have got themselves ...
• Anglers angry as Norfolk Broads dredging plans approvedFurious anglers claimed yesterday that the Broads Authority had failed to properly listen to their concerns that dredging Heigham Sound on the Upper Thurne could trigger a bloom of fish-killing algae.
• Ice warning for Norfolk roadsDrivers in Norfolk were this morning warned to watch out for black ice on the county's roads. A temperature drop overnight made driving conditions tricky and Norfolk police were called to a string of road crashes.
• Driving ban for shipping bossA SHIPPING magnate has been banned from driving for three years and fined £1,100 after admitting drink-driving days after his wife and new-born son left him for America.
• Weymouth Relief Road 'ahead of schedule and £2m under budget' WORK is progressing on the congestion-busting Weymouth Relief Road so smoothly that it could finish ahead of schedule and come in under budget, it is claimed.
• Birmingham New Street £600m overhaul approvedA £600 million Network Rail plan to revamp Birmingham™s New Street station has been given the green light by planning chiefs.
• Network Rail appoints Jacobs to £53m East Anglia freight upgrade Network Rail has appointed Jacobs as a design partner for its £53 million upgrade of East Anglia™s rail freight network.

Other Subscription Services

• Political pressure grows to scrap light dues hikeSecond reading of bill debated at House of Lords
• Study backs inclusion of shipping in EU emissions trading schemeReport backs move towards cap and trade policy
• Crossrail begins £260m contracts hand outCrossrail has announced the first six contracts to be awarded under its £260m enabling works framework.The largest job on the framework - package C330 - for the Royal Oak Portal - goes to the...
• Crossrail signs Costain Skanska for Royal OakEnabling works on the Royal Oak portal, Crossrail's western tunnel entrance, will start this month following the award of Package C330 to a Costain Skanska joint venture.Preparatory work on site...