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

Friday, 17 November 2017

BBC News

• Reading train depot noise order against GWR and Network RailRail bosses have been issued with a noise abatement notice after claims people living near a train depot are enduring "sleepless nights".
• Arriva North West bus staff to take part in nine December strikesArriva said their latest pay offer was
• 'Hopper fare' for London's buses and tramsThe new fare is expected to come into force early next year, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.
• Uber London licence appeal 'could take years'TfL deemed Uber unfit to run a taxi service and refused to renew its licence in September.
• TubeCrush: Tube passengers' attractiveness ratedSome Londoners have branded a website where Tube passengers' attractiveness can be rated as
• Southern Rail disruption delays London's deputy mayor for transportDocuments show London's deputy mayor for transport avoids early meetings due to the rail operator's performance.
• Manufacturing centre will offer 'lifeline' for veteransScotland's Bravest Manufacturing Company will produce rail and road signs when it opens next year.
• Virgin West Coast rail workers to strikeThe RMT union says union members at the rail firm voted 9-1 to take strike action over pay.
• Siemens to cut 6,900 jobs worldwideThe German industrial group's job cuts will come mostly in its fossil fuels division.
• Tax disc: Car tax evasion triples after paper version scrappedThe government potentially lost out on £107m from 755,000 unlicensed vehicles in the past year, data shows.

Financial Times

• Siemens to shed nearly 7,000 jobs in power and gas unitsGerman group reacts to long-term decline in turbine demand
• Boeing upstages Airbus in battle of manufacturersUS group gets better of its European rival in showcase week for aircraft in Dubai
• Car tax evasion triples after scrapping of paper discTreasury may be losing out on up to £107m revenues a year
• Network Rail to sell £1bn commercial property portfolioState-owned infrastructure group moves to shore up finances
• Tesla unleashes supercar from newly launched truckElon Musk says revamped Roadster will be ‘fastest production car ever made’
• Kenya Airways says political turbulence is hitting intra-Africa trade

The Guardian

• Autumn budget: Hammond urged to invest £7bn in transport for new townsNational infrastructure commission calls for the rate of housebuilding to be doubled across a swath of central England
• Number of untaxed vehicles in UK trebles after tax disc abolitionAround £107m a year in road improvement revenue is being lost after DVLA reveals untaxed cars and vans on UK roads has surged to 700,000
• Elon Musk unveils Tesla electric truck and a surprise new sports carUsing diesel trucks now economic suicide, says Musk but questions persist over company's capacity to meet demandElon Musk unveiled Tesla's first electric semi-truck on Thursday evening at an event in Los Angeles that also included the surprise reveal of a new Tesla sports car. The new Roadster, which has the same name as the first electric vehicle produced by Tesla from 2008 to 2012, emerged from the back of one of the trucks at the end of a presentation that focused largely on the economic and performance needs of truck drivers.

The Herald

• The scandal of ScotRail's faresWHEN is action going to be taken regarding unfair fares on our trains?
• End of the line? Glasgow Airport may still get its surface linkIt was, said John Swinney, 'desirable but not essential'. When the then finance secretary binned Glasgow's Airport Rail Link eight years ago he felt he had saved the public purse a fortune.
• Airport rail link will 'do more harm than good'The latest scheme to build a multi-million-pound link to Glasgow Airport has hit the buffers after experts warned it would do more economic harm than good.

The Huffington Post

• Trees Can Fight Air Pollution And Reduce Asthma Attacks In Urban Areas

The Scotsman

• Alastair Dalton: Inventor’s anniversary points us to the futureThe only evidence in Milngavie of a local experiment what could have revolutionised travel is a commemorative poster in the town’s railway station....

The Telegraph

• Car tax evasion triples after scrapping of paper discs 

Times Online

• Diesel drivers face £2-an-hour parking charge [Subscription]Owners of diesel cars face a £2-an-hour surcharge to use parking bays under plans revealed yesterday.
• Japanese rail company says sorry after train leaves 20 seconds early [Subscription]Commuters often complain that their lives are ruined by the terrible train operators that served their cities, with insult only added to injury by the blasé attitude of the companies. Yet, one operator in Japan has bucked that trend by apologising for a discrepancy of just 20 seconds.
• Car tax evasion triples after paper discs are scrapped [Subscription]The abolition of the paper tax disc is costing the government ten times as much in unpaid tax as it hoped to save in cuts to red tape.

City AM

• Uber licence appeal could take years, says London mayor Sadiq KhanUber's appeal against a decision not to renew its licence in the capital is likely to go on for years, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has said.
• Crossrail latest: Elizabeth Line train rollout stalls on Liverpool Street to Shenfield routeProgress on the rollout of the first Elizabeth Line trains has stalled, with Transport for London (TfL) pushing back a target to have 11 trains in passenger service by the autumn.
• Nearly 45,000 UK drivers have now teamed up for legal action against Volkswagen over emissions scandalNearly 45,000 motorists have now teamed up in a class action lawsuit against Volkswagen in England and Wales, with a pre-trial hearing scheduled for later this month.
• Ranked: The UK regions with the longest and shortest daily commutesCommuters in the capital are now battling an 81 minute daily journey in and out of work, the equivalent of 38 working days a year, according to new analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

Mail Online

• Car tax goes online as number of licence cheats trebles The Government claimed it would save £10million a year by reducing tax evasion and cutting costs when it replaced paper discs with an online system in October 2014.
• Strike threat to Virgin West Coast line Rail workers on Virgin Trains’ West Coast route have voted by nine to one to go on strike in a dispute over pay. The West Coast franchise covers services from London Euston to Glasgow.

Labour Party

• Mick Whelan: After 18 Months’ Myths, Let’s Set The Record Straight On Southern RailAslef drivers on Southern Railways voted overwhelmingly this month to accept a proposed resolution to our long-running industrial dispute with the company – 731 (79.1 per cent) voted yes to the deal while 193 (20.9 per cent) said no, on an 87.1 per cent turnout.

Daily Post (North Wales)

• West Coast Virgin Train staff vote to strike Overwhelming number of workers support walk out affecting North Wales lines

London Evening Standard

• Virgin rail strike: Staff vote overwhelmingly in favour of walk-outRail workers on Virgin West Coast trains have voted by nine to one to go on strike in a dispute over pay, the RMT union announced.
• Deputy mayor for transport Val Shawcross 'avoids early starts because she uses Southern Rail', emails revealLondon's deputy mayor for transport Val Shawcross avoids early starts because she relies on Southern Rail for her morning commute, emails have revealed.

Carlisle News & Star

• Stobart Group lobbied over Borders Railway extension to CarlisleSTOBART Group has been lobbied to get behind plans to extend the Borders Railway to Carlisle.

North Wales Live

• Stagecoach to spend £4MILLION on new buses in Liverpool and WirralBus giant says vehicles will boast 'hand stitched Italian-designed leather seats'
• Business owners plead: 'Don't let Arriva bus strike ruin Liverpool's Christmas'Nine days of December strike action planned over pay dispute

Other Regional Press

• Dorset MP holds talks on new train timetable Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset, has met Andy Mellors, Managing Director of South Western Railway, to discuss future plans for the service.
• Passenger train idea 'on track' for LudgershallThe train line that runs between Ludgershall and Andover could be re-opened to passengers.
• Traffic to be diverted via LINCOLN to avoid roadworks on the A17Road resurfacing works on a stretch of the A17 between Sleaford and the A1 at Newark will see three weeks of overnight closures and drivers ordered to re-route via Lincoln.

Buying Business Travel

• Virgin West Coast staff vote for industrial actionDate of strike to be determined

Construction News

• Transport for the North secures status upgradeTransport for the North (TfN) will become the first sub-national statutory transport body on 1 April next year, the Department for Transport has confirmed.

Rail Technology Magazine

• DfT pledges 'a million inspiring experiences' during 2018 Year of EngineeringThe DfT has pledged to work alongside industry partners and MPs to offer young people “a million direct and inspiring experiences of engineering” in an effort to tackle the skills gap. Coming as part of the 2018 Year of Engineering, the campaign will see large-scale outreach...
• Full steam ahead for Doncaster station upgradePlans to develop Doncaster train station are now formally underway as the council’s planning committee granted approval of the designs and layout of the new station forecourt. Work has already begun on the multimillion-pound project, with phase one seeing the demolition of the old Royal...
• TfN statutory status pushed back to AprilTransport for the North (TfN) is likely to be officially recognised as a statutory body as transformative legislation lands in the House of Commons today – but the official deadline has been pushed back from this year to April 2018. Last October, the organisation asked for formal...
• TSSA announces Christmas and New Year Virgin West Coast strike ballotMembers of the TSSA working at Virgin West Coast will be balloted on whether to strike over the Christmas and New Year period. Union members make up over 400 of the total staff on the service – which connects London with the north west, north Wales and Scotland. The union says the strike...
• RMT Virgin West Coast support staff vote to strike over 'workplace justice' RMT members of Virgin West Coast services have today voted massively in favour of strike action in a dispute over pay. Out of 1,460 staff polled, 1,330 said they were prepared to take strike action over a disparity in pay between drivers and other station and support staff. Virgin has...

Railway Gazette

• Transport for the North to become statutory bodyUK: Legislation to turn the Transport for the North partnership of 19 local authorities, business...

Aviation Industry

• Austrian Airlines to train 96 pilots for 2018 Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines is looking for 96 future pilots as it begins a new training course for ab initio pilots. read more
• Cathay Pacific to introduce Wi-Fi on A330s, 777sCathay Pacific is the latest airline to unveil an extensive onboard Wi-Fi deployment plan, as it looks to introduce the service across its widebody fleet. read more

Other News Sources

• Southeastern has revealed why passengers still don’t have free WiFi in 2017 despite a promise to do soCommuters using Southeastern's high speed service are paying some of the highest season ticket prices in the country, but will not have access to wifi until next year
• Elon Musk just put the rail industry on notice... Tesla CEO Elon Musk didn't just announce his plans to remake the trucking industry. He also served notice to rail carriers.
• Transport Secretary praises FTA work to address skills shortageThe Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has praised the work of the Freight Transport Association to attract the next generation of logistics ...
• Shadow Transport team visits Stansted Airport to hear about growth plans and transformationLondon Stansted yesterday (Weds) welcomed the Shadow Transport Secretary, Andy McDonald MP, and Shadow Aviation Minister, Karl Turner MP, to see how the airport is planning to make best use of its existing runway capacity and improve the UK's global connectivity over the next decade.