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

Thursday, 29 September 2016

BBC News

• Fare-dodging barrister Peter Barnett struck offA lawyer who commuted by train for two years without paying has been disbarred.

Department for Transport

• Better journeys for passengers on the Cross Country networkArriva Cross Country to continue to run trains services stretching across Britain under new contract announced today.
• Rail industry regulator gets 3 new board membersNew non-executive directors join the board of the Office of Rail and Road.
• Community rail plan for line between Swindon and Westbury to go aheadCommunity groups to get more input under new rail plan for TransWilts line.

Financial Times

• Experimental Midlands train is 35-year-old District line relicWhen the first passengers board an experimental train later this year in the West Midlands, the layout will be familiar to some. While much will look brand new, the arrangement of the seats is the giveaway of a grand experiment in recycling. Underneath the new paint and fittings, the three-car train consists of old carriages from London Underground’s District line.

The Guardian

• Arriva promises faster rail journeys as it retains Cross Country contractDepartment for Transport says there will be 39,000 more seats and greater reliability, with £20m to be spent on upgrading trains
• Stagecoach slides on worries about rail and bus slowdownA disappointing trading update from transport group Stagecoach has seen its shares go into reverse.
• China to build world's deepest high-speed rail station under Great WallThe station at Badaling 80km from Beijing will link the capital to the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics
• Barrister disbarred for dodging train faresFor two years Peter Barnett avoided paying thousands of pounds in railway fares on journeys between Oxfordshire and LondonAn Oxfordshire-based barrister has been disbarred after dodging thousands of pounds in railway fares, following a hearing at the Bar Standards Board. Peter Barnett, 45, avoided paying the correct fare for two years from 2012 by claiming he commuted into central London from Wembley in north-west London instead of his home in Thame, Oxfordshire. Continue reading...

Times Online

• £1,000 penalty for ignoring signs to get out of smart lanesMotorists face fines of up to £1,000 for ignoring red crosses on motorways under plans to cut dangerous driving.

London Evening Standard

• Baker Street: Tube station evacuated after worker is threatenedBaker Street station was evacuated and put on lockdown this evening after a customer threatened a member of staff.

Other Regional Press

• Rail improvements can help secure the East Midlands as global force For years, the Midland Mainline was dubbed the "Cinderella" railway – a nice way of saying it hadn't seen much investment compared to other UK routes.

Rail Technology Magazine

• Retail sales at NR stations increase by 4.14% in Q1Retail activity at Network Rail-owned stations has increased above the market standard in the first quarter of 2016-17. The infrastructure owner released new figures showing that like-for-like sales increased by 4.14% between April and June, compared to a 0.5% increase across the whole of the...
• South West Trains opens first video customer contact centreSouth West Trains passengers will be able to seek support in buying tickets via video screens at the first specialised customer contact centre in the UK, officially opened at Basingstoke today. The centre is linked to video ticket machines, which have been installed at 91 stations since...
• Crossrail and HS2 part of 'great opportunity', Japanese investors toldTransport secretary Chris Grayling has promised the government’s continued support for HS2 and Crossrail during a trade tour to Japan. Grayling attended the G7 Transport Ministers’ Summit in Karuizawa, Nagano on September 23-25, and also visited Tokyo to meet the city’s...

Other News Sources

• Arriva UK Trains is First to Launch Next-Generation Passenger Wi-Fi for Chiltern RailwaysChiltern Railways customers can now save time, data, and no longer have to worry about connecting to separate on train and station Wi-Fi thanks to collaboration between parent company, Arriva UK Trains, digital connectivity experts WiFi SPARK, Icomera and using EE's superfast 4G network. This first for the rail industry enables passengers to experience an optimal Wi-Fi connection, regardless of whether they are on the station platform or on the train.
• Microwave system promises end to leaf-induced rail miseryKeats described autumn as the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ but for Network Rail, train operators and travellers alike it is often the cause of disruption. The source of this interruption to services can be found in the leaves falling onto railway lines and being turned into a Teflon-like mulch by trains passing over […]
• Trains are back but replacement bus services are still running A TRAIN operator ran buses alongside trains sparking complaints of confusion and congestion amongst passengers.