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

Friday, 30 January 2009

BBC News

• Runway opponents reveal rail planOpponents of a third runway for Heathrow Airport have revealed plans to make it the centre of a rail network.
• Rail firms in car parking 'abuse' The Castle Point MP Bob Spink has tabled a Commons motion over the issue of increased car parking charges at Essex railway stations.
• Rail firms lose £500,000 appeal Two rail maintenance firms have failed in their legal challenge to fines totalling almost £500,000 for safety breaches which led a worker's death.
• Greenhouse gasesRecession casts doubt on carbon trading
• Airbus sees no need for bail-outAirbus chief executive Tom Enders says he sees no need for a government bail-out in the current downturn.
• Shell hit by falls in oil priceOil giant Royal Dutch Shell reports a sharp fall in quarterly profits but still posts record annual results.
• 'Unprecedented' fall in air cargoThe amount of freight transported by air has suffered a dramatic fall, reflecting the global economic slowdown.
• Ford reports record yearly lossUS carmaker Ford reports the biggest full-year loss in its history, but says it still does not need government loans.

Financial Times

• Airlines report 'shocking' plunge in trafficThe airline industry reported an 'unprecedented and shocking' plunge in global air cargo traffic. The International Air Transport Association said traffic volumes had fallen by 22.6%
• Tube to seek 1,000 redundanciesThe move by London Underground to seek around 1,000 redundancies among its 20,000 staff is part of a plan to make £2.4bn savings over the next 10 years

The Guardian

• East Coast arrivals cause rail upsetTransport companies FirstGroup and National Express both fell sharply yesterday on news of increased competition on the East Coast mainline rail route
• Parliament is wrong on HeathrowThe government lost the argument for a third runway, but finagled last night's Commons vote. This is not over by a long, long way

The Herald

• Group calls for cheaper £1.5bn rail hub at HeathrowA £1.5bn rail scheme, a cut-price alternative to the government's plan for a railway hub at Heathrow airport, could take one million cars off the road and link the airport to the rest of the UK at a fraction of the cost.

The Independent

• London Underground to cut 1,000 jobs London Underground is to axe 1,000 jobs this year, affecting non-operational areas including finance and administration, the company announced today.
• Apostrophe catastrophe for city's street signsBirmingham City Council has ruled that apostrophes should not feature on its road and street signs. The decision, which the authority hopes will draw a line under decades of dispute, follows a review to establish whether the possessive punctuation mark should be restored to place names such as Kings Norton and Druids Heath.
• London Underground 'always a terror target'Terrorists will always target London Underground, the network's boss said yesterday, but the method of using suicide bombers will

The Scotsman

• Honda plant to shut for four monthsWorkers at the UK factory of Japanese motor giant Honda are due to make the last cars for four months because of an extended shutdown caused by the slump in sales.

Times Online

• Ford's $14.6bn loss worst performance in 105 years$ Ford Motor Company plunged to a full-year loss of $14.6 billion ($£10.2 billion) for 2008, the worst annual performance in its 105-year history, but America's second-biggest carmaker insisted that it did not need a government bailout.
• Shell profits slump on shifting crude price Profits at Royal Dutch Shell slumped in the fourth quarter as the oil group paid the price for its high-cost business model in Canada and crumbling refining and chemical margins.
• EasyJet shares fall as chief executive Andy Harrison sells half his stake Shares in easyJet suffered a double blow yesterday with news that the budget airline’s chief executive had offloaded about half his stake in the company while its founder warned of a grim summer ahead.

Daily Express

• A BLAST FROM THE PAST AS NEW TORNADO PUFFS BACK A BLAST from the past took to the main railway line yesterday with a toot on her whistle and a plume of white steam.

Daily Record

• 200 passengers trapped on ferry by falling truck are being rescuedALMOST 200 passengers and crew were being rescued tonight after spending almost a day stranded on board a ferry when a lorry broke free and burst through the ship's rear door.

Network Rail

• NETWORK RAIL ANNOUNCES NEW FINANCE DIRECTOR

Transport Briefing

• Birmingham International interchange project signed offAn £11m package of public transport enhancements between Solihull, Birmingham International Airport and the National Exhibition Centre has been approved by the government.
• Local rail package mooted as Heathrow hub alternativePlans for rail improvements to tackle congestion on the roads around Heathrow Airport have been unveiled by a consortium of local authorities.
• M6 Heysham motorway link completion gets amber lightA £137m project to complete the M6 Heysham link in Lancashire has been granted Programme Entry status by the Department for Transport
• East Coast rail ruling approves Grand Northern start-upGrand Union train services between London King's Cross and Bradford are set to be given the green light by the Office of Rail Regulation's latest ruling on access rights for passenger services on the East Coast Main Line.

Birmingham Post

• Flybe named world's best regional airlineFlybe, one of the largest airlines operating from Birmingham International Airport, is being hailed as the pride of the British aviation industry after winning the prestigious 2009 Regional Airline of the Year award.

Edinburgh Evening News

• Brown boosts rail link plansPRIME Minister Gordon Brown has insisted the Government is moving forward with plans for a high-speed rail link from London to Edinburgh.
• 'Noddy train' plan for Royal MileIT might just turn out to be the quickest way of getting around the city centre if Edinburgh's traffic woes continue.

Journal Live

• Heathrow plans ’will not harm Newcastle’NEWCASTLE Airport bosses yesterday remained confident future expansion plans would not be affected by the new runway at Heathrow, despite fears the move could scupper the growth of regional airports.

Liverpool Echo

• Free bikes for cityFREE bikes will be given out in Liverpool to encourage people to get out of their cars and stay active.
• Save Our Motor Industry: Gordon Brown's support for Merseyside car firmsGORDON Brown today declared a vote of confidence in Merseyside’s struggling car industry.

London Evening Standard

• The high-rise bike lockA London student has come up with a novel approach for securing bicycles in the capital - hoisting them eight feet above the street
• I blundered in vote, admits MP fighting Heathrow expansionA Labour MP who has campaigned against Heathrow expansion spoke of his
• Tube chiefs to axe 1,000 staffLondon Underground is to axe 1,000 jobs because of the recession
• 'Normal life' deterred more suicide bombs, says Tube chiefThe speed at which Londoners got back to normal life after the 7/7 bombings helped to deter further terror attacks on the Tube, MPs were told

Sheffield Telegraph

• Law team moving ahead on dealDLA Piper has won a five-year contract to exclusively provide property legal advice for transport giant National Express Group plc and all of its UK subsidiaries.

The Press and Journal (Aberdeen)

• Give us your timetable for transport “ MSPsOpposition MSPs are today putting pressure on the Scottish Government to unveil a robust timetable for major transport improvements planned for the north and north-east.
• Transport minister ˜backs down™ to address A90 fears in AngusTransport Minister Stewart Stevenson has agreed to meet campaigners calling for urgent improvements to a north-east trunk road.
• New rail station plan hits buffersPLANS for a new £1.3million railway station at Inverness Airport have temporarily hit the buffers after the north™s transport partnership had the funding removed for use by Highland Council.

The York Press

• York scientists think bug may hold key to solving any future petrol crisis A WOOD-MUNCHING bug which was once the scourge of the shipping world is at the forefront of attempts by the University of York to find an alternative to petrol.
• Dispute over siting of new A64 stop rumbles on A LONG-RUNNING dispute over the siting of a new bus stop on the A64 could end in tragedy unless it is soon resolved, a councillor has warned.

Yorkshire Evening Post

• Go-ahead given to extra London trainGRAND Central has been given the provisional go-ahead to run an extra train each day between York and London – but hopes of a door-to-door service from Poppleton to the capital have been scuppered.
• Yorkshire towns in line for new rail link to LondonPARTS of Yorkshire have been given a huge economic boost with the first direct rail services to London for decades to start this year – and it will cost just £34 for a ticket on the day.

Carlisle News & Star

• Carlisle residents using radar gun to catch speeding driversFed-up residents in the south of Carlisle are taking the problem of speeding drivers into their own hands “ by targeting law-breakers with a radar gun.

Sunderland Echo

• Fourth London rail link for SunderlandSunderland is on track to get a fourth daily train service to London.

The Economist

• Sweden's car industry: For saleSaab and Volvo are on the block. But are there any buyers?THE Swedish car industry is up for sale. Saab and Volvo are on the block because their owners, General Motors (GM) and Ford respectively, can no longer afford to keep them. But there are important differences. GM may have only weeks to divest itself of Saab, whereas Ford is a slightly less desperate seller. GM, which would have gone bust without the emergency federal loans it received at the end of the year, faces a deadline on February 17th. It must show progress towards viability or risk having to pay the taxpayer back at the end of M...
• Correction: Car industryIn our briefing on the global car industry (“The big chill”, January 17th 2009) we reported that Rolls-Royce sold no vehicles in America in December 2008. Rolls-Royce has since told The Economist it sold “more than 70 cars”, and Autodata, a market-research firm, says Rolls-Royce sold 31 cars that month. ...

Washington Post

• Airline losses for fourth quarter mount ATLANTA -- Deep capacity cuts, checked bag fees and aggressive fare sales couldn't stop the airline industry's bleeding from the impact of bad bets on fuel hedges and the drop-off in demand due to the weak economy. After more carriers posted losses Thursday, the total fourth-quarter red ink for the top nine U.S. carriers by traffic rose to $4 billion.
• Ford Lost $14.6 Billion in 2008 Ford insisted that it would persevere without a government bailout yesterday even as it reported a $14.6 billion loss in 2008, the automaker's worst annual performance in its history.
• Honda's quarterly profit slumps, annual target cut TOKYO -- Honda Motor Co. slashed its annual profit target by over half Friday as quarterly profit tumbled 90 percent, hit by rising costs, a stronger yen and falling sales in key markets.

Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport

• Lorry slips out of ferry doorsA lorry has slipped out of the doors on a ferry heading from Scotland to Northern Ireland after breaking free.The Stena Voyager had set off from Stranraer when a loud bang was heard and the lorry was found hanging off the back of the ship, lodged in the doors.Forced to turn return to port, the vessel will have to wait for heavy-lifting equipment to remove the freight vehicle and allow the ship to dock with the link span at Stranraer.A total of 156 passengers and 33 crew were on board the Stena Voyager when it left for Belfast on Wednesday night and a full investigation will be carried out by f...

Transport for London

• Transport for London drives forward the motorcycle safety agenda As part of the continuing drive to improve the safety of motorcyclists in the Capital, Transport for London (TfL) is hosting a two-day summit of experts from four other major European cities.

Aviation Industry

• United reports loss, to slash 1,000 jobsUnited Airlines, saddled with contracts that forced it to pay above-market rates for fuel, reported a $1.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter and revealed it will slash 1,000 jobs.
• Iberia net profits drop 90% Carrier blames high fuel costs and falling demand read more
• France ends discriminatory airport charges EC rules they are state aid read more

Other News Sources

• London rail service boostHARTLEPOOL is to get a fourth daily rail service to London and back
• First Hull Trains to increase servicesTransport operator First Hull Trains has secured a deal to increase its daily services to London.
• D-Day for Halifax to London rail link bidIT is D-Day for the district today as it awaits a decision on direct train services to London.
• New rail link welcomedDirect rail services between Bradford Interchange and London are set
• M6 link road awarded 'Programme Entry'PLANS for the Heysham M6 link road have reached a new milestone as the government awards the scheme 'Programme Entry' status.
• High-speed rail link to capital faces new delayThe Lincoln to London high-speed rail link is hanging in the balance after regulators failed to approve plans.
• First run for new £3m steam engineA unique steam train has been taken for a test run on the Network Rail main line through Yorkshire.
• Heathrow anti-expansion campaigners release £1.5bn rail scheme detailsCreating a national rail network to serve Heathrow Airport would be cheaper and greener alternative to building a third runway, campaigners said today.
• The anti Heathrow expansion group, 2M, has revealed its alternative rail plan.Opponents of a third runway for Heathrow Airport say its £1.5bn proposal would reduce the number of flights - there are cureently 60 flights to Paris and 36 to Manchester every day..
• Growing energyNottingham University is leading two five-year research programmes aimed at developing sustainable bioenergy fuels from non-food crops, inedible parts of crops, and industrial and agricultural waste products.
• Shell stays focusedEurope™s largest oil company, Royal Dutch Shell, has reported a drop in quarterly earnings following the plunge in oil prices last year.
• Potocnik challenges car industry to go greenJanez Potocnik, the EU's science and research commissioner, has thrown down the gauntlet to Europe's automotive industry, challenging them to come up with practical solutions for the electrification of European transport by next year.
• Fuel cells 'could power ships by 2012' The shipping industry could start powering its fleets with fuel cells in three years' time but it could be up to 30 years before all existing engines are switched over to such low-carbon technologies.
• Public transport comes under review The Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, has outlined key government targets for improving Ireland's public transport services.
• Interfleet technology helps to shape new Thameslink Trains (press release) The expertise of consultants at international rail industry consultancy Interfleet Technology has been instrumental in the development of specifications for the first of a new generation of inter-urban EMU vehicles for Thameslink read more