Roadworks mean stretch between junctions 10 and 11 will be shut from 9pm on Friday to 6am on Monday
Drivers have been warned to expect delays this weekend as part of the M25 shuts down for the third time this year.
Major roads in the south-east will be “incredibly busy” this weekend as National Highways closes a section of London’s orbital motorway for roadworks in both directions between junctions 10 and 11 in Surrey from 9pm on Friday to 6am on Monday, the AA said.
Continue reading...Network Rail route directors will also attend next week as UK government aims to reform railways quickly
Labour has summoned the bosses of some of the worst-performing train operators, including Avanti West Coast and TransPennine, for meetings next week as it seeks to rapidly reform the railways and reset industrial relations.
The transport secretary, Louise Haigh, will bring in Network Rail route directors to attend all talks with the train companies, signalling the move towards an integrated railway.
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Australians feel ‘crushing burden’ from humanitarian crises
Many Australians are feeling a “crushing burden” as they see images from multiple humanitarian crises around the world, a prominent charity says.
I think sometimes people see this stuff on the news or read about it in the newspaper and they feel like they have to carry this burden on their own shoulder, and so they have nothing in between crisis and themselves.
And they look at something like what’s happening in Gaza and Israel, what’s happening in Ukraine, what’s happening now in Sudan, and think how can they possibly make a difference? What can they possibly do to make that situation better? And so it feels like a crushing burden.
Abortion is a very personal choice, and every Queenslander deserves the level of support and care we are offering with this investment.
Continue reading...Climate Council analysis finds 7 million people living in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide face huge barriers to public transport
One in two residents of Australia’s five largest cities do not live within walking distance of public transport that is frequent enough for them to ditch their reliance on cars, new analysis has found, with lower-income suburbs worse off in all but one city.
The Climate Council analysis has revealed that more than 7 million people living in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide face huge barriers in choosing any transport option besides driving, leaving them with little choice but to consistently spend more money getting to work and moving around in general.
Continue reading...On a morning when the Dandenong Ranges were largely obscured by clouds, Danny Pearson says ‘lots of caffeine’ was driving his enthusiasm
According to Victoria’s transport infrastructure minister, this is a train station with “million dollar views, baby”.
At a press conference on a cloudy Friday morning, Danny Pearson was ebullient in his praise for the views commanded by the new elevated platform at Croydon – to the point that his enthusiasm itself was questioned by reporters.
Continue reading...Boy, 17, charged over driving an allegedly stolen car in a fatal crash that killed a 28-year-old man in Burwood
A teen accused of driving a stolen Jeep that killed another driver was checked on by police hours after the crash and found in bed with a doona pulled up to his chin, police allege.
Police are relying on a pair of white shoes, a phone call and an accusation by a young female co-accused to prove the 17-year-old was behind the wheel during the deadly crash.
Continue reading...School and tertiary students receive concessions, but their fares are still more than three times those offered to seniors in some states
It’s the uncomfortable question few politicians would dare to ask. Are generous travel discounts afforded to Australia’s older citizens, especially self-funded retirees who are not means tested, sustainable? Moreover, are they fair?
Seniors have long enjoyed heavily subsidised public transport fares across Australia. But as the population ages, public finance strains and a cost-of-living crisis weighs disproportionately on younger generations, some are suggesting a rethink.
Continue reading...Airport operator says it will fight for more costly underground option despite expert report’s findings
The long-promised train to Melbourne airport appears to have hit yet another snag, after the prolonged and bitter standoff between Victoria and the airport that has delayed the line for years intensified, despite government-imposed mediation.
The train project – which would be funded by the federal and state governments – has stalled over the state’s insistence it would only finance a cheaper above-ground train station instead of the costlier underground option demanded by the airport.
Continue reading...Insults hurled at Lindsay Selby, who has not yet entered a plea, while leaving Brisbane court after being charged over a fatal CBD bus crash
A bus driver charged after a Brisbane CBD crash in which 18-year-old Tia Cameron died has been abused while leaving court.
Lindsay Francis Selby, 70, was also targeted by some of Cameron’s supporters outside Brisbane magistrates court on Wednesday in heated scenes.
Continue reading...Prof Andrew McNaughton also warns plan to build Sydney-Newcastle route is ‘doomed’ to fail unless a shorter stretch to Gosford comes first
Ensuring Australia’s decades-long high-speed rail project maintains enough support to be built requires the public to be constantly reminded of its benefits, such as easing property prices, providing better job opportunities and even widening the dating pool, a British expert has urged.
Prof Andrew McNaughton, the chair of the UK’s Network Rail High Speed, also warns that the Albanese government’s push to build high-speed rail along Australia’s east coast, starting with a Sydney-Newcastle section, is “doomed” to fail unless planners split the first stage into an even smaller, achievable stretch to Gosford.
Continue reading...Outage causes major delays as officials advise people due to travel from terminals one and two not to come to airport
All flights out of terminals one and two at Manchester airport have been cancelled after a “significant power cut” in the early hours of Sunday morning, leaving hundreds of holidaymakers stranded.
The airport told all passengers due to travel from its two biggest terminals on Sunday not to come to the airport, and warned passengers on the few flights that were able to leave that they may not have their luggage with them.
Continue reading...Institute for Fiscal Studies praised Conservatives’ ambition but said by some measures gap had widened
Progress towards a series of levelling up goals set by the UK government has been “glacial”, and achieving them by the target date of 2030 will require a big increase in resources for struggling areas, a leading thinktank has said.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that, on many measures, regional inequality had widened and the UK had gone into reverse.
The share of pupils in England meeting expected standards at the end of primary school dropped from 65% in 2018–19 to 60% in June 2023, against a target of 90% by 2030. In only 10 English local authorities – all in London – did at least 70% of 11-year-olds meet this target.
The total number of further education and skills courses completed in England fell by 14% between 2018–19 and 2022–23. In the lowest skilled areas, the decline was almost 20%. The goal for 2030 is to have 200,000 more people successfully completing high-quality skills training annually, driven by 80,000 more people completing courses in the lowest skilled areas.
A 21-percentage-point gap in the average employment rate between the best and worst-performing local authority areas in the UK – the widest it has been since at least 2005. The aim is to have rising pay, employment and productivity in every area of the UK, and a smaller gap between the top performing areas and others.
The Conservatives’ aim is for local transport connectivity across England to be significantly closer to the standards of London, but the gap between the use of public transport in London (39% of journeys) and in the rest of the country (7%) during 2022-23 was at its second-widest level since 2002–03, as passenger numbers failed to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
Continue reading...Subatomic instrument will be able to accurately pinpoint locations under ground and under water, where satellite signals are often blocked
Dr Joseph Cotter takes some unusual pieces of luggage on his trips on the London underground. They include a stainless steel vacuum chamber, a few billion atoms of rubidium and an array of lasers that are used to cool his equipment to a temperature just above absolute zero.
While not the average kit you would expect to find being dragged into carriages on the District Line, this is the gear that Cotter – who works at Imperial College London’s Centre for Cold Matter – uses on his underground travels.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Last-minute decision comes as Civil Aviation Safety Authority says it is ‘engaging’ with airline on concerns rostering is leaving pilots fatigued
Virgin Australia has made a last-minute decision to delay putting a controversial pilots’ enterprise deal to vote, after outcry about its plan to cut days off and concerns that pilot rostering was nearing unsafe limits.
The decision comes as Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) officials flagged they were aware of fatigue concerns over Virgin Australia’s pilot rostering after the Guardian revealed internal disquiet on the issue among senior pilots and frustration at what they felt was an inadequate response from management.
Continue reading...Campaigners say lower speeds reduce casualties but scheme has since been amended to give people more choice to rescind limits
Vehicle damage claims in Wales have fallen by 20% at one leading car insurer since the nationwide 20mph speed limit was introduced there last September.
Wales was one of the first countries in the world, and the first nation in the UK, to introduce legislation for a default 20mph speed limit in built-up areas last year.
Continue reading...Brisbane city council ordered 60 of the electric vehicles, but a cut back in scheduled services means just over half may be needed
Two dozen state-of-the art, multimillion-dollar electric buses could be left sitting idle in a shed when the Brisbane Metro service starts operations this year, because it will operate less frequently than initially planned.
The system was originally designed to operate every three minutes, but it’s now planned to run every five minutes, which would require fewer vehicles.
Continue reading...Eight of 21 cars tested underperformed against their marketed efficiency rates, Australian Automobile Association says
Cars driven by Australians are consistently consuming more fuel than their marketed efficiencies, investigations have found, with the latest tranche of “real-world” testing finding one car used 31% more petrol than its advertised rate.
The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) testing – funded by the federal government – found that eight of the 21 cars examined in its latest round of testing consumed more petrol in real road driving conditions compared with the efficiency rates calculated by their manufacturers in laboratories.
Continue reading...Passengers were left abandoned and humiliated after operator banned staff from providing assistance
Eurostar has reversed a new accessibility policy that left a wheelchair user stranded and has retrained its London staff following pressure from the Observer.
Travellers with disabilities claimed that they would be barred from Eurostar services after the company banned its London staff from pushing passenger wheelchairs. Those who require assistance were told they must travel with a companion or cancel their ticket if they were unable to access services unaided, according to passengers who contacted the Observer.
Continue reading...Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s Vik Sharma says Melbourne’s lack of airport train line is a global embarrassment
Rank and file Victorian Labor members have piled pressure on the state government to “get serious” on building a train line to Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport.
A motion to get the city’s stalled airport rail link project back on track was unanimously passed by party members and unionists at the Victorian Labor state conference on Sunday.
Continue reading...Law change not ‘anti-cycling’ says Iain Duncan Smith, who brought the amendment to the criminal justice bill
A new offence of causing death or serious injury by dangerous, careless or inconsiderate cycling is to be introduced.
The law will be changed after a deal was reached between the government and the former Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, whose amendment to the criminal justice bill was backed by 37 fellow Tory backbenchers.
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