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

Saturday, 17 November 2012

BBC News

• First Bus strike: Mediators asked to solve pay dispute A mediation service has been requested to resolve a pay dispute involving First Bus Group in Devon and Cornwall.
• Call to boost cable car commutersThere are calls for travelcards to be extended to the Thames cable car to increase the number of commuters using it.
• Pink bus for 'brave' schoolboyA bus company paints one of its buses pink to help highlight a Lanarkshire schoolboy's battle with a life-threatening blood disease.

The Scotsman

• Kirkliston bus cuts spark outrage OUTRAGED residents are up in arms after vital bus services were cut back – leaving them without direct access to the local hospital outwith peak times.

The Telegraph

• Driverless trains: Britain has 'lessons to learn' from France, says transport secretaryThe Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin says British cities have great deal to learn from Lille's example of using driverless trains.
• Interview: Patrick McLoughlin, Transport SecretaryAfter spending 17 years as a whip, Patrick McLoughlin returns to his old stamping ground on a mission to put transport on a fast track .
• Young drivers could be banned from carrying non-family passengersYoung drivers face a ban on carrying anyone other than family members as passengers under proposals being considered by the Government to cut the number of road accidents involving teenagers.

Mail Online

• Ban young drivers from having passengers: Minister calls for nine month restriction after passing testTransport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin (pictured) said he was looking at ideas put forward by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), which it says could cut the number of accidents involving young motorists.

ATOC

• 'Great work' by rail industry helps people make greener transport choicesA revolutionary automated bike hire scheme and the addition of 2,000 cycle spaces across one operator’s network were some of the achievements celebrated at this year’s National Cycle Rail...

Network Rail

• The next trains to arrive on Blackrod station will be ¦¦.Blooming lovely when spring arrives.That™s because they are all planters, made by local students in conjunction with Network Rail, Arm4 and other organisations working on the station refurbishment project.
• Keith Ludeman to join board of Network Rail international consultancy businessNetwork Rail Consulting, the international consultancy arm of Network Rail, announces today the appointment of one of Britain™s top transport business leaders, Keith Ludeman as a non-executive director.

Belfast Telegraph

• Bus and rail fares set to soar Bus and rail fares across Ireland are to soar by as much as 18% within weeks. The most punishing in a wide-ranging raft of public transport price hikes will be for short bus journeys around Dublin paid for in cash. Dublin Bus confirmed it will increase fares by 17.9% for smaller trips while longer journeys - more than three stages - will go up almost 6%.

Derby Telegraph

• Extra orders for trains factory Bombardier on way as Thameslink debate loomsA RAIL operator has announced plans to extend an existing contract with Derby train-maker Bombardier – and create another deal which could potentially be worth hundreds of millions of pounds to the company.

London Evening Standard

• 'We made Boris Bike hire too cheap,' say bosses one week after they double charges Transport chiefs have admitted in the wake of doubling charges for Boris Bike that they set the hire charges too low.

Northern Echo

• Council wants parents and students to have their say WORRIED parents battling to save threatened school bus services have been urged to back a major campaign to shape the future of transport in the town.

Sheffield Star

• Security coding for bikesCYCLISTS in Chesterfield can have their bikes security coded free of charge at the weekend.

The York Press

• A19 speed limit compromise that no one asked for TRANSPORT bosses are set to introduce a new 50mph speed limit on a busy road near York “ despite neither residents nor police wanting it.

Yorkshire Evening Post

• Leeds commuters could face long wait for more trainsCommuters could face a lengthy wait for additional trains to help ease rail journeys into Leeds.

Yorkshire Post

• Rail union calls ¨ballot for strike ¨over ChristmasRail workers in Scotland are to be balloted for strikes over alleged victimisation of an employee, raising the threat of action over Christmas.

Bucks Free Press

• Commuter blasts new train timetable A PRINCES Risborough commuter has slammed the new Chiltern Railways timetable saying she will get a worse service for her money.

Other Regional Press

• MP hits out at bus company over routes CHANGES to bus routes that come into effect from tomorrow in Gosport have been criticised by the town’s MP.

Bus and Coach.com

• London fares upThe cost of travelling by public transport in London will rise by an average of 4.
• Optare reaches 10,000Optare has completed its 10,000th bus, a Solo SR for operation by CT Plus on Jersey.
• Manchester M60 fares cutFirst Manchester is cutting fares on many of its services from this weekend.
• Sumner to leave OptareOptare chief executive officer Jim Sumner is leaving the company at the end of this year after three and a half years in the post.

Global Rail News

• Plunging the depthsTo be fair, Shore Road pumping station is difficult to reach. Network Rail™s project manager Simon Barraclough and his colleague Behnam Sarani had been doing battle with their belligerent satnav that had already succeeded in sending them on three circuits of Birkenhead and was determined to have them drive back down through the Mersey tunnel [...]
• Southern plans to extend Electrostar orderSouthern Railway has placed a £60 million order for 40 new Electrostar carriages off the back of a deal agreed last year for 130 units. The operator announced yesterday (November 15) that it plans to exercise an existing option on December’s order with Bombardier for a fleet of new carriages, as well as work with [...]
• Former Go-Ahead boss joins Network Rail ConsultingFormer Go-Ahead boss Keith Ludeman has been appointed by Network Rail’s new consultancy arm to promote the British rail industry around the world. Ludeman, 62, has joined Network Rail Consulting as a non-executive director, having retired from his role as group chief executive of transport provider Go-Ahead in 2011. During the international launch of Network [...]
• Ansaldo STS awarded Perth signalling contractWestern Australia’s Public Transport Authority (PTA) has confirmed a A$19.7 million contract with Ansaldo STS for a signalling system on the new 7.5km Perth metro line extension. The $240 million state government project, which is due to be completed in 2014, will extend Perth™s urban railway network north to Butler. Ansaldo STS has been delivering [...]
• Unions to demonstrate on anniversary of King™s Cross fireRail workers’ union RMT is planning to demonstrate outside King’s Cross this weekend on the 25th anniversary of the fire that killed 31 people at the London station. Members have said the aim of the protest is to “highlight the continued need for a fully staffed and safe Tube network”. RMT members, fellow trade unionists [...]
• Video: Flexity trams delivered to TorontoToronto’s transport authority has taken delivery of a new Flexity tram from Bombardier.

Railnews

• DfT acts to ease Thameslink trains logjam The Department for Transport has admitted that the continuing logjam over the Thameslink rolling stock deal is now jeopardising future electrified services, and has starting the process of procuring new dual-voltage trains elsewhere.

Aviation Industry

• Bombardier confident in new CSeries scheduleBombardier has a œhigh degree of confidence it will be able to stick to its revised schedule for the CSeries, a company official said.

Other News Sources

• RMT to ballot across Scotrail for action over victimised memberRAIL UNION RMT confirmed that it has begun a ballot for strike action and action short of strike of all Scotrail members over the victimisation and dismissal of a member whose only 'crime' was to assist a member of the public in ensuring they had the correct ticket for a journey in line with company policy.