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

Monday, 15 April 2024

BBC News

• Buses in Essex and Hertfordshire abruptly withdrawnPeople living in a rural district said they have been left stunned after five bus services were taken off the road.

Financial Times

• Rail chaos prompts fresh calls to nationalise England's West Coast lineLink to London suffers sustained delays, cancellations, slashed timetables, overcrowding and poor customer service

The Guardian

• Department for Transport urged to put hard shoulders on smart motorwaysPlea from RAC comes a year after plans for new smart motorway projects were cancelled amid longstanding safety concerns

The Herald

• Holyrood urged to give update on ScotRail off peak schemeScottish Labour has urged ministers to lay out a plan to cut rail fares before a pilot scheme scrapping peak prices comes to an end.

The Independent

• ‘Uncomfortable, unpleasant, unsafe’: How London’s Euston Station became hell on earthDubbed in one memorable tweet as ‘a Petri dish of chaos’, London’s Euston station has become a living metaphor for Britain’s crumbling infrastructure – a dire hub of delays, expense and trauma. Katie Rosseinsky dives into its aspirational past and potentially brighter future, and asks where it all went wrong

Times Online

• Ban new drivers from having passengers to cut deaths, says AA. [subscription]Motoring association says that young drivers should be banned from giving their friends a lift for up to six months after passing their test

i News

• New HS2 ’embarrassment’ as rail HQ opens but train factory faces closureThe timing of the regulator's temporary headquarters opening in the city is horribly "ironic" and "embarrassing", says Derby City Council leader

Birmingham Mail

• New smart motorway rules could be introduced as government 'does right thing'The motoring group has slammed the hated roads one year after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak axed future projects amid safety concerns over smart motorways, which are UK-wide.

Bolton News

• Call for slice of £500m HS2 funding for M61 junction 7A slice of around £500m should be spent on a new junction to relieve “horrific congestionâ€� at one of Bolton’s busiest roads, an MP says.
• Andy Burnham pledges no return for CAZ on Westhoughton visitAndy Burnham has said “in no uncertain termsâ€� that plans for a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) will not be coming back on a recent visit to Bolton.
• Clean Air Zone: Tram style train will clean up Bolton's airGreater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has discussed bringing a new tram-style train service to Bolton during a hustings discussing transport issues.

Bradford Telegraph & Argus

• New Bradford city centre bus loop 'flummoxes' passengersPEOPLE were out and about getting used to the new bus loop around the Bradford city centre which came into effect today.

Bristol Live

• New type of train service could cut fares by 60% and end strikesOpen access operators set their own fares, take on all revenue risk and receive no taxpayer-funded subsidies

Daily Post (North Wales)

• Outrage over 'anti-car agenda' as new Gwynedd path gives cyclists and walkers more room than motoristsThe path is being built to encourage active travel in Bangor

Wales Online

• Squeezed drivers on route which gives as much room to bikes claim it's an 'attack on your right to drive a car'The new shared-user path is being built as part of a £1.2m active travel scheme and has been met with a mixed reaction from locals who travel on two wheels, four wheels and two legs

Wrexham.com

• Calls for city centre developers to contribute to new green spaces and better transportDevelopers creating new flats in Wrexham town centre should be contributing towards new green spaces, better public transport and safe car parking.

Get Surrey

• Railway line set to re-open between Redhill and Tonbridge after weeks of disruptionEmergency repairs have been carried out following a major landslip

Other Regional Press

• Wrexham residents to benefit from open access rail boomWrexham residents are among millions of people across Britain who will have access to new train services under rail industry plans.
• Scotland’s Railway selects Age Scotland as new charity partnerScotland’s Railway has launched a new charity partnership with Age Scotland, after staff across ScotRail and Network Rail Scotland selected it to be their new nominated charity.
• Irvine: Work to take place on railway bridge over summerRepair work under a railway bridge in Irvine could be set to take place this summer.
• Transport for Wales announces plan for changing rail demandsTransport for Wales (TfW) has completed its future timetable review following a change in rail travel demands post-covid.
• Powys community transport scheme in danger of closingA community transport scheme in north Powys says they are in danger of closing due to a lack of volunteers.

Calling All Stations - The Transport Podcast

• John Major's rail privatisation helmsman torpedoes Conservatives' latest reformsChristian speaks at length with Steve Norris, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the UK Department for Transport between 1992 and 1996, who was the key Rail Minister serving John Major's Conservative Government in delivering the privatisation of Great Britain's railways and the creation of new industry structures. ...

Rail Advent

• West Yorkshire station building to become a community centreThe culmination of 17 years of effort has been celebrated by a group in West Yorkshire who have secured almost £300,000 of funding to transform an old station building into a community centre with studio space for local artists.
• Four boring machines now constructing HS2 tunnel under LondonA fourth tunnel boring machine (TBM) has started tunnelling underneath London to join three others building the Northolt Tunnel for HS2.

The Business Desk

• Pressure grows on Prime Minister to end Alstom Derby crisisThe fast-growing campaign aimed at trying to save thousands of jobs in the region will take another step forward this week when a series of letters are handed in to Downing Street and to the UK boss of Alstom – whose site is at the centre of storm.

Other News Sources

• Network Rail fills further North West & Central CP7 civils frameworksA group of contractors has won places on three Network Rail frameworks for the delivery of capital works in the North West & Central Region, covering both structural and geotechnical engineering.
• What are open access train services?Britain’s rail network could see the addition of seven new open access routes.