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

Saturday, 30 August 2008

BBC News

• Land Rover will cut output shiftsCarmaker Land Rover will cut production by one day a week as it reacts to slower economic growth.
• EU to investigate BA-AA allianceThe European Union has opened an antitrust investigation into a revenue-sharing deal between BA, American Airlines and Iberia.
• Alitalia seeks bankruptcy measureTroubled airline Alitalia seeks bankruptcy protection as it tries to agree a deal to ensure its survival.
• Airline collapse hits thousandsHundreds of travellers are stranded and tens of thousands lose bookings after the budget airline Zoom collapses.

Financial Times

• Routemaster to take the green roadAlexander Dennis looks to military technology to put buses powered by hybrid technology on London's roads for 2012 Olympics

The Telegraph

• Holidays under threat as XL cancels flights to CaribbeanXL Airways is the latest carrier to cut back on flights thanks to rising fuel costs.

Times Online

• Zoom case study: ’they must have known’ When Dan Wood searched for flights for a family holiday to celebrate his wife’s 40th birthday, a special offer from Zoom airline seemed too good to be true.
• Alitalia in administration with €1bn debt Alitalia was placed into bankrupty protection yesterday in a move that marks the beginning of the break-up of Italy's national airline.

Daily Post (North Wales)

• Smart card to replace bus passBUS passes will be scrapped and swapped for microchipped “smartcards” as part of a pioneering new scheme in Denbighshire.

Edinburgh Evening News

• Green light for bus lane planPLANS to turn a section of one of Edinburgh's busiest roads into a bus lane have been approved.

London Evening Standard

• Dramatic video: Bendy bus engulfed by flamesAnother bendy bus has spontaneously burst into flames, forcing transport bosses to investigate the vehicles again. See the video here
• Fuel rises drive motorists towards public transportSoaring fuel prices and the credit crunch are forcing record numbers of motorists from cars to public transport, new figures suggest
• Transport police in new drive to defeat crime on the railwaysPolice are attempting to stamp out crime on the railways in a week-long operation

Peterborough Telegraph

• Pay deal averts airports strike threatBaggage handlers and check-in staff at some of the country's biggest airports, including Stansted, have accepted a pay deal, ending the threat of industrial action.

Washington Post

• As summer ends, flyers brace for airline changes ATLANTA -- The grip U.S. airlines have on travelers' wallets is about to get tighter as carriers go ahead with plans to trim their domestic schedules due to the high cost of fuel.
• Want a Better Way to Power Your Car? It's a Breeze. Legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is half right. We do need to harness this country's wind resources for a homegrown source of electricity, as he has been urging this summer in expensive television ads. And we do need to reduce the $700 billion we may soon be paying annually for imported oil. But part two of Pickens's plan -- to move natural gas out of electricity production and use it to fuel cars instead -- just doesn't make sense.