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

Saturday, 18 February 2017

BBC News

• Ford developing pothole alert system for driversThe carmaker says it is testing technology to detect potholes and warn drivers of their locations.
• ScotRail payouts to passengers hit �2,000 a dayScotRail had to pay out more than �2,000 a day to passengers during a period of disruption to services, it emerges.
• Bus lane trial for taxis in Belfast to begin next weekA 12-week trial scheme for some taxis to use bus lanes on Belfast Rapid Transit (BRT) routes is to begin next week.
• Further Southern rail strikes possible says AslefDrivers' union says it hopes to reopen negotiations with Southern managers.
• Polluting cars 'T-Charge' to be rolled out in autumnMore polluting cars face an extra �10 fee for entering the congestion charge zone from October.
• Vauxhall deal: Minister meets Peugeot and French governmentThe UK business secretary has

Financial Times

• Bike companies hope batteries will electrify salesLondon show features new generation of cycles with electric assistance
• A new ‘skiers’ airline’ offers a fast-track to the AlpsPowdAir will operate direct flights to Sion, Switzerland from six UK airports

The Guardian

• Glasgow bin lorry crash driver admits driving car without licenceHarry Clarke pleads guilty after getting behind the wheel nine months after incident in which six people diedThe driver of a bin lorry that crashed in Glasgow, killing six people, has admitted driving a car without a licence nine months after the incident.Harry Clarke, 60, appeared at Glasgow sheriff court on Friday, where he pleaded guilty to culpable and reckless driving. Continue reading...
• London to introduce £10 vehicle pollution charge, says Sadiq KhanMayor says owners of more polluting cars will have to pay extra levy from October to drive within congestion charge zoneOlder, more polluting cars will have to pay a £10 charge to drive in central London from 23 October, the city’s mayor has said.Confirming he would press ahead with the fee, known as the T-charge, Sadiq Khan said: “It’s staggering that we live in a city where the air is so toxic that many of our children are growing up with lung problems. If we don’t make drastic changes now we won’t be protecting the health of our families in the future. Continue reading...

The Herald

• Council may seek judicial review if Ardrossan loses Arran ferry routeCONTROVERSIAL plans to relocate one of Scotland’s busiest ferry crossings will be challenged in the law courts if approved, it has been warned.
• Analysis: Why shipbuilders take the long viewFew people take as long a view as Clyde shipbuilders. The men and women who design, build and fit out some of the world's most complex warships cannot afford not to. After all, it can take decades between the first electronic draft of a new frigate until the last of its line enters service. And that ship can stay on active service for decades longer.
• Major investment scrapped at Upper Clyde's last yardsSHIPBUILDING in Scotland will wither in the global marketplace, it has been claimed, after BAE Systems scaled back much-vaunted investment plans that would have been a “game-changer” for the industry

The Huffington Post

• Polluting Cars Will Be Taxed To Enter Central London From OctoberDrivers of older, more polluting cars will be charged an extra levy for entering central London from 23 October, the Mayor of London has announced. Sadiq Khan said the £10 ‘Toxicity Charge’ would apply in the congestion charging zone typically to petrol and diesel cars registered before 2005. “It’s staggering that we live in a city where the air is so toxic that many of our children are growing up with lung problems,” Khan said. “The T-Charge is a vital step in tackling the dirtiest diesels.” The move comes two days after the European C...

The Scotsman

• ScotRail paying �2,000 a day in compensation to passengers

The Telegraph

• Glasgow bin lorry crash driver admits reckless driving again - just nine months after six people died
• Lorry weight likely to cause surge in pothole levels
• Drivers of older diesel cars to be charged extra �10 to enter London

Times Online

• Airbnb fighting rent limit with grassroots lobby group [Subscription]Airbnb has launched a strategic “grassroots” lobbying campaign to fight the Irish government’s plans to regulate the way it operates, The Times can reveal.
• Air pollution on busy roads as bad as passively smoking 10 a day [Subscription]Living next to a busy road is as unhealthy as being exposed to ten cigarettes a day, scientists calculate.
• Charge for toxic cars is ‘toughest in the world’ [Subscription]The owners of the most polluting cars will face a £10 “toxicity charge” to drive into central London under plans outlined yesterday.
• Train chaos spreads north as rail staff vote on strike [Subscription]A dispute over the modernisation of the railways is set to spread to northern England after months of strikes in the south.

Daily Record

• ScotRail pay out �2000 a day to passengers over shoddy serviceNew figures show nearly £600k was paid out over a period of nine months for complaints involving cancellations and delays.

Mail Online

• London Stansted evacuated after e-cigarette used in toilet Thousands caught up in the chaos described mayhem when the entire departures hall at the Essex airport was shut down this morning.
• Women who shouted Allahu Akbar escorted off easyJet plane The pair were filmed being taken away by officers after causing two hours of 'drama' on a Valentine's Day flight from�Prague to London Stansted.
• Cruise firms making millions in 'rip off' credit card fees Consumer campaigners say they are being flouted, with the travel industry a major offender. Cruise giant ROL charges a 2.5 per cent fee, while P&O owner Carnival charges 1.5 per cent.

The Mirror

• Pothole levels to surge as roads are being worn down by heavier lorries The weight of goods carried by British-registered lorries rose by 5% to 1.7 billion tonnes in the year ending June 2016

Birmingham Mail

• New DVLA car tax rules: How much YOU will have to pay Motorists across Birmingham and throughout the West Midlands will be required to change what they pay in a bid to keep their vehicles on the road
• Child booster car seat - find out how the law is changing Worryingly, new research reveals two thirds (66%) of parents do not understand the current car booster seat regulations

Bolton News

• Motoring misery on way as �500,000 resurfacing work begins MOTORISTS face more misery from Monday when resurfacing work on Manchester Road gets underway.

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• Warning of overnight road closures A KEY route through Brighouse town centre is to close overnight next month for just over a fortnight to allow essential maintenance to be carried out.

Daily Post (North Wales)

• North Wales pothole �50,000 compensation payouts A total of 460 claims were made against councils in the region in 2015/16 after cars were left damaged by substandard roads

Derby Telegraph

• Bombardier vows to battle on despite £460m Merseyrail dealA contract worth hundreds of millions of pounds to build new trains which was won by one of Bombardier's rivals has been signed - despite an ongoing legal challenge from the Derby train-maker.

London Evening Standard

• Stansted Airport 'chaos' after e-cigarette sets off smoke alarmPassengers at Stansted Airport faced "chaos" on Friday morning after a passenger smoking an e-cigarette in one of the toilets set off a fire alarm.
• Evening Standard comment: Cyclist and pedestrians both need supportThe Mayor's new cycling and pedestrian commissioner, Will Norman, takes up his job a week after three cyclists died on London streets. Yet he is upbeat about his role, insisting that he would not allow his young children to cycle in the capital if it weren't safe. Obviously, he faces formidable challenges, including notorious killer road junctions, resentment from motorists and cab drivers about disruption caused by building cycle super-highways, as well as the imperative to get the most dangerous lorries off London roads by 2020.
• Southern Rail strike: Date, time and everything you need to know about the walkoutThousands of rail commuters face major travel misery next week as strike action cripples Southern services.

Manchester Evening News

• Drivers warned of major road closure on route to Manchester Airport for whole weekend Weekend closure to hit drivers on the M6, M56 and A556

East Anglian Daily Times

• Could a flyover solve congestion on the A12 and A14 trunk roads at Copdock?Highways England needs to spend £500m improving junctions on the A14 and A12 around Ipswich, including the notorious Copdock junction, to tackle rush-hour delays.

West Sussex Gazette

• Fears over car parking loss for Petworth skate park are allayedFears that plans for a skate park in part of Petworth’s town centre Pound Street car park will mean a loss of car parking have been allayed.

Other Regional Press

• Circuit of Wales wins union and construction sector backing THE ambitious Circuit of Wales project in Ebbw Vale has won the support of the UK’s biggest trade union and one of the largest construction firms in the world.
• GWR records almost 5% decline in punctuality after national figures reach 10-year low PUNCTUALITY on the nation’s rail network has reached its lowest point in over a decade, figures from the Office of Rail and Road have revealed, leading to rail campaigners to demand action in light of fare rises.
• Highways boss says throw things at me if London Road traffic light scheme doesn't work HIGHWAYS boss Philip Whitehead told a public meeting that if a �347,000 scheme for traffic lights on London Road, Devizes did not improve morning traffic flow he would return and people could throw things at him.
• New �3.5bn Oxford-Cambridge Expressway route could pass through protected Green Belt HIGHWAY bosses are set to recommend a new �3.5bn expressway passes south of Oxford through protected Green Belt land, it has been claimed.
• Drone has near miss with plane landing at Southampton Airport A DRONE was involved in a near-miss with a passenger plane that was about to land at Southampton Airport.
• Weeks of closures of delays on busy Southampton road for bridge testing SIX WEEKS of lane closures and four days of temporary traffic lights will commence in Southampton this month as bridges are tested.
• Road speeds lowered after Judi’s tireless safety campaign in HitchinHitchin’s streets are set to have lower speed limits introduced after the culmination of six years of tireless campaigning by a councillor.

Rail Technology Magazine

• Wi-Fi On-Board Trains: Key Considerations for Rail and Metro Operators Our world is becoming 100% connected, with continuous connectivity a basic commodity. Connectivity 'dark spots' are becoming fewer and smaller, and as such they stand out to customers as poor user experience. One of the major remaining dark spot envi…
• Settle to Carlisle line on track for March reopening Considerable progress has been made on plans to reinstate the iconic Settle to Carlisle railway ahead of its scheduled reopening next month. The railway was closed in February last year after flooding to the River Eden in Cumbria caused 500,000 tonnes of earth under the railway to slip on 31...
• HS2 can 'only be as good as local rail connections make it'It is of vital importance that investment in the conventional rail network continues over the next 20 years during the development of HS2 to ensure that West Yorkshire becomes “truly HS2-ready” and the project’s benefits can be realised from the get-go, regional leaders have...
• GTR failures account for 86% of national decline in rail performanceGovia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has, unsurprisingly, once again come bottom of the two separate public performance measure (PPM) charts released this week. The first dataset, collected by Network Rail and accounting for period 11, reported a decline in the national PPM, which was logged at 87.9%...
• Aslef members reject Southern deal as further strike loomsAslef drivers have voted to reject a proposed resolution with Southern, therefore failing to put an end to the bitter 10-month dispute between the operator and rail trade unions.  The union’s referendum result comes a day after RMT’s own negotiations with Southern broke down...

Green Miscellany

• A black box in every car will ensure the polluter paysA new £10 emissions levy on pre-2005 cars in London is only months from launch, but such is the danger to health posed by air pollution that a far more stringent tax is already in development. Under a ‘polluter pays’ approach, local authorities will require that internal combustion engine vehicles be fitted with a black box to track their movements and… The post A black box in every car will ensure the polluter pays appeared first on ETA.

Other News Sources

• TomTom introduces new traffic data sharing tool to transform mobility Dutch company TomTom has launched a new traffic cooperation tool to facilitate the exchange of traffic data with cities, road authorities and other mobility stakeholders.
• Proposal to introduce parking charge for electric car drivers THE council wants to introduce a parking charge for electric car drivers to stop motorists taking advantage of free all day parking.
• Drone nearly flies into passenger plane A drone was involved in a near miss with a passenger plane that was about to land at Southampton Airport.
• Heathrow flights 'may be cancelled' as four-day British Airways strike begins Cabin crew members are staging a four-day walk out following a long dispute over "poverty pay"
• Traders furious over the parking informer AN INFORMER is flagging up illegal parking to the council and landing drivers with fines.