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

Thursday, 13 April 2017

Cogitamus

• 🐣🐣 TransportInfo is taking a break 🐣🐣TransportInfo will be updated tomorrow, Good Friday, then we will be taking a short break over the Easter Weekend. We will return on Tuesday 18 April 2017.

BBC News

• Tornado locomotive hits 100mph on mainline rail networkThe Peppercorn class A1 steam locomotive roared along the East Coast Main Line overnight.
• Sharp rise in Scottish railway trespass incidentsBritish Transport Police and Network Rail say Scotland saw a 16% rise in cases last year.
• Lower Thames Crossing route between Kent and Essex revealedThe transport secretary announces the new road will connect the M25 in Essex with the A2 in Kent.
• M8 'missing link' will open a week ahead of scheduleInfrastructure Secretary Keith Brown says the new road will be cutting journey times by the end of the month.
• Amazon's Alexa turns on Ford car's engineThe virtual assistant can also give the vehicle a health check and find nearby stores.
• Germany's new train firm on trackA look at Locomore, a new rival to German's state-owned railway group Deutsche Bahn
• United Airlines boss interview: How did Oscar Munoz do?Crisis communications expert Alex Woolfall assesses Mr Munoz's first interview since the removed passenger scandal.
• United Airlines boss Oscar Munoz will not resignOscar Munoz said he felt
• Tesla board 'too close to Elon Musk'A group of major shareholders has questioned the independence of the electric carmaker's board.

Financial Times

• Siemens and Bombardier in talks over trains mergerEarly-stage discussions of potential tie-up would face strong antitrust scrutiny
• Delta upbeat on outlook despite higher fuel costsKey sales measure set to be in black after nine-quarter decline though profits fell
• United chief vows never to repeat passenger ejectionUS carrier to compensate all passengers on the flight at the centre of its PR crisis

The Guardian

• United Airlines CEO offers softer apology after stock nosedivesClose to $1bn wiped off holding company’s value before stock rallies, after a man was violently removed from a flight by aviation policeThe CEO of United Airlines has issued a second public apology about the man who was forcibly removed from a flight on Sunday, calling the incident “truly horrific”.“No one should ever be mistreated this way,” Oscar Munoz wrote in a note to employees Tuesday, one day after video posted by fellow passengers showing police dragging the man off the plane went viral. Continue reading...
• United Airlines to refund tickets for all passengers on infamous flightWhen airline asked for volunteers to deplane, they offered $800 to relinquish a seat before dragging a man off. Now they’ll pay the full price of every ticketSeeking to quell the uproar over a man being dragged off a plane, United Airlines announced on Tuesday that it would refund the tickets for all customers who were on the flight when the man was removed and that it would no longer ask police to remove passengers from full flights.The airline said that passengers on United Express Flight 3411 on Sunday would be compensated equal to the cost of their tickets and could take the compensation i...

The Herald

• United Airlines CEO will not resign after passenger removal scandalUnited Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz says he felt
• Rail disruption set for Easter weekend and beyond - all you need to knowAs Network Rail works to deliver more than £5m of enhancements for Scotland’s railway system, passengers are in for travel disruption over the Easter weekend and until the end of the month.

The Scotsman

• Rail trespassing at all time high in ScotlandThe number of incidents of people trespassing on Scotland’s railways has soared 16% in a year to an all-time high, new figures show.

Reuters News

• Post-Brexit customs checks a 'catastrophe' for UK shipping - trade bodyLONDON (Reuters) - The introduction of physical customs checks following Brexit would be a catastrophe for British ports and shipping and would likely reduce the volume of trade, the head of the sector's UK industry body said on Wednesday.

Daily Record

• Date for opening of new M8 'missing link' finally announced as roadworks are completed almost a week ahead of schedule Transport Scotland said the work will improve journey times at peak times by around 20 minutes.

The Mirror

• Shocking footage shows youngsters risking their lives on railway lines Alarming new figures show more people than ever are dicing with death with one person trespassing on train tracks every hour

Birmingham Mail

• Do you drive a diesel? Government is 'set to introduce' �20 a DAY new tax Birmingham reportedly part of plans from Andrea Leadsom to tackle pollution

Birmingham Post

• Record month for Birmingham Airport March was a busy month for the airport as more than 900,000 passengers passed through the terminal

London Evening Standard

• Lower Thames Crossing: New two-mile tunnel beneath River Thames to M25 announced by GovernmentA two-mile road tunnel beneath the River Thames has been announced by the Government.
• Tube lift closures quadruple in one year due to absence of trained staffA lack of trained staff on the Tube led to lifts on the network being out of action more than 300 times last year.
• Easter Tube travel: key lines closed over bank holiday weekendLarge parts of the Tube network is to close over the bank holiday.

Newcastle Evening Chronicle

• Tall Ships 2018: STS Lord Nelson sails into Sunderland to showcase event The unique ship will take part in next year's race which will start on Wearside

Northern Echo

• Watch as Darlington loco Tornado clocks 100mph under cover of darknessA STEAM locomotive�has reached 100mph on�a mainline rail network�for the first time in half a century on tracks passing through the North-East town where it was built.

Other Regional Press

• Stagecoach gives in to pressure after residents demand bus stop's returnAfter public pressure, and the intervention Irvine's MSP, Stagecoach says they have reinstated use of unofficial bus stops for the 23 service.
• Hydrogen-fuelled car set for county trial smashes fundraising targetA HYDROGEN car set for a “first-of-its-kind” trial in Monmouthshire has exceeded its crowdfunding target of more than £1.1 million.
• Youngsters can now travel in Oxford by bus for just �1 YOUNG people can now buy single bus fares to any location in Oxford for just �1.
• West Yorkshire has two of Britain's slowest motorways - and it may surprise you which ones they areNear continual congestion makes our motorways among the UK's most frustrating drives

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• Jaguar Land Rover beats 600,000 sales barrier in 2016/17 Jaguar Land Rover has reported record retail sales of 604,009 vehicles (including sales from our china joint venture) in the financial year ended 31 march 2017, up 16% compared to a year ago, exceeding 600,000 for the first time in the company’s history. Retail sales for the fourth quarter (ended 31 march 2017) were 179,509 vehicles, up 13% on the same quarter a year ago, and march sales reached 90,838 units, up 21% on march 2016. Retail sales for the financial year were up year-on-year in China (32%), North America (24%), the UK (16%) and Europe (13%), whilst sales in Overseas markets...
• Great Western Railway to launch smartcard Great Western Railway (GWR) is to launch a smartcard for the Severn Beach Line, as part of a pilot which could see combined rail and bus travel in a single ticket offered across Bristol. Allowing people to add weekly, monthly and annual season rail tickets to an electronic card to begin with, the pilot project is being run in partnership with Bristol City Council and if successful could form part of a wider, integrated scheme, including MetroWest, and local bus services. Bristol City Council Councillor Mark Bradshaw said:
• New Lower Thames Crossing to cut congestion and create thousands of jobs Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has announced the preferred route for a new Lower Thames Crossing that could create more than 6,000 jobs and boost the economy by more than £8 billion. The new crossing will create a new link between the A2 and the M25 and reduce the burden on the busy Dartford Crossing. The Lower Thames Crossing is expected to carry 4.5 million heavy goods vehicles in its first year. This investment in our roads can help transform the growth potential of our country and improve people’s journeys to and around the south-east. The planned route will run from t...

Rail Magazine

• New institute for high-speed rail engineering at LeedsThe establishment of a new Institute for High Speed Rail Engineering at the University of Leeds is set to bring added focus to HS2 research.

Rail Technology Magazine

• Advanced Technology for Railway Maintenance The Jiangsu production base of Beijing YHD Railway Equipment is a modern technology intensive machinery manufacturing and processing enterprise and located in the China Precision Machinery Manufacturing Machining Center, 'Golden Triangle' Changzhou a…
• Scottish rail minister intervenes to block CrossCountry service reductionProposals to reduce CrossCountry rail services from the north east of Scotland have been scrapped after transport minister Humza Yousaf stepped in to defend the line. CrossCountry has now withdrawn a proposed timetable that could have resulted in six services between Aberdeen and Edinburgh being...
• Tunnel boring starts to extend Northern Line to BatterseaTunnelling work to extend the Northern Line to Battersea started today as the first of two boring machines began its 3.2km tunnelling journey to lengthen the line between Kennington to Battersea. The two machines, called Helen and Amy, were lowered 20 metres below ground in Battersea back in...
• HSRIL: HS2 must be viewed as a global exportRail leaders have called on the government to view high-speed rail projects as lucrative potential exports, as they described HS2 as: “the most important public investment project in the UK for decades”. In their response to the government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper...

Railnews

• Merger talks boost Bombardier, Siemens Shares in train builders Bombardier and Siemens rose sharply last night as rumours spread of a possible merger of their train-building businesses. Such a merger would be likely to create the largest train builder in the world, with potential sales of �13 billion. Both companies are under increasing pressure from train builders in the Far East, particularly China, where CRRC was formed in 2015 by merging the country�s two largest rolling stock construction companies. More recently, there has been speculation that Chinese companies want to bid for contracts to build trains for HS2.

Railway Gazette

• Weedfree orders weed killing trainEUROPE: Weedfree On Track is investing �2m in a second weed killing train, backed by a �300 000...
• M�V-Start and Stadler sign double-deck EMU framework contractHUNGARY: A framework agreement for the supply of up to 40 Kiss double-deck electric multiple units...

Aviation Industry

• Cathay Pacific names new CEO in leadership shuffleCathay Pacific parent Swire Pacific has named senior executive Rupert Hogg to replace the Hong Kong flag carrier’s current CEO Ivan Chu as part of a major leadership reshuffle. read more
• United CEO Munoz vows there will be no repeat of bumping incidentUnited Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz said an incident like the one involving a bumped passenger being violently dragged off an aircraft earlier this week “will never happen again on a United Airlines flight” and promised that law enforcement would never again be used in a similar situation. read more
• CBP electronic device searches on international air passengers up 58% US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) searched approximately 4,600 electronic devices, or 0.008%, of approximately 58 million incoming international air passengers and crew in the first six months of the US government’s FY 2017 (October 2016-March 2017), according to CBP statistics released April 11. read more
• Berlin Tegel ground handling issues prompt airberlin route delay Airberlin has delayed the planned expansion of US connections because of continued ground handling problems at Berlin-Tegel Airport. read more

Other News Sources

• ‘It’s not getting better at all’ – Bus misery continues on Stevenage Arriva routesBus operator Arriva apologised following ‘reliability issues’ that have seen Stevenage passengers waiting up to an hour – but its pledged return to normality this week hasn’t yet materialised.
• Major aviation manufacturer 'shocks' staff with plan to close historic Byfleet warehouse The company started in the early 1900s producing milk churns before moving into aviation manufacturing in the 1940s
• M25 named as UK's slowest motorway - but does it come as a surprise? It would take a vehicle nearly five hours to travel just 117 miles - the equivalent of a plane travelling from London to Turkey
• Heathrow expansion: Michael Gove under the spotlight after turning down public meeting with constituents The Surrey Heath MP has been criticised for turning down a public meeting with campaigners "yet again"
• New Thames Crossing Must be Part of a 21st Century Infrastructure Plan, says FTAThe Freight Transport Association has welcomed today’s (12 April 2017) announcement from Department for Transport that the new Lower Thames ...
• Disability vehicles taken awayThousands of people with disabilities have already had their adapted vehicles taken away, because of changes in the benefit system. Now the charity Muscular Dystrophy UK says 900 people each week are losing their cars or scooters because they’re being denied the new Personal Independence Payments.
• Top for cycling and renewable electricity, but bottom for bus use and spending on open spacesA new green index shows Cambridgeshire and Peterborough city region is ranked top for cycling and renewable electricity, but bottom for bus use and spending on open spaces.
• Extend discount rail season tickets scheme around Cambridge, says MPCambridge MP Daniel Zeichner has called on Greater Cambridge City Deal and Cambridgeshire County Council to investigate the possibility of extending a discounted rail season ticket scheme for members of travel association Travel for Cambridgeshire (TfC) to more lines connecting Cambridge.