Watchdogs say they received 750,000 responses to consultation, 99% of which were objections
Plans to close railway station ticket offices in England have been scrapped, in a government U-turn.
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said the “government had asked train operators to withdraw their proposals”.
Continue reading...Decision to discharge ‘low risk’ Anthony O’Donohue from mental health service in 2016 found to be ‘not satisfactory’
The firebombing death of a young bus driver “might not have occurred” if different decisions had been made about the care of the mental health patient who had been deemed “low risk” before killing him, Queensland’s state coroner has found.
Terry Ryan handed down his findings a day before the seventh anniversary of the death of Manmeet Sharma, a 29-year-old from India who had been working as a bus driver for the Brisbane city council for just three months.
Continue reading...Government draft environmental impact statement reveals thousands will be impacted by noise as loud as washing machine five or more times a day
Noise from the new western Sydney airport won’t force the acquisition of nearby properties, but dozens will be eligible for free home insulation to dull sound.
Only about 100 properties will be eligible for free insulation to dull the noise of 480 weekly flights out of western Sydney airport under a preliminary plan.
Continue reading...Video footage posted online appeared to show a driver using the PA system to lead a chant with passengers
A tube driver who appeared to lead a chant of “free, free Palestine” on a train has been suspended while Transport for London investigates the incident.
TfL said it had identified the driver responsible for the incident on a central London service on Saturday, as about 100,000 protesters took part in a pro-Palestine demonstration and demanded an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Continue reading...Major cleanup operations get under way in worst-hit areas after storm that left four people dead
Fresh danger-to-life flood warnings have been issued as water levels continued to rise in the wake of Storm Babet, while cleanup operations got under way in some of the worst-hit areas.
All weather warnings triggered by the storm had expired on Sunday morning, with drier and brighter weather forecast, but flooding was expected to last for days and two severe flood warnings, signalling danger to life, were later issued for Retford in Nottinghamshire.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Transport Opinion Survey says in September workers spent 21% of their week working from home, down from 27% in March
As an increasing number of Australians favour the office over working from home, Friday has emerged as one of the most popular days to commute and be among colleagues, new research shows.
On average Australian workers spent just 21% – or between one and two days – of their work week at home during a two-week survey period in September, down from a corresponding data point of 27% in March. This is according to the latest Transport Opinion Survey conducted by the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, based on data from 1,029 respondents, who were also asked about priorities and transport attitudes.
Continue reading...Government advisers say congested roads and inadequate public transport constrain economic growth
England’s biggest cities outside London should introduce some form of congestion charge to reduce car traffic and boost their economies, according to the National Infrastructure Commission.
The commission called on the government to invest £22bn into public transport in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Leeds, warning that “congested roads and inadequate public transport … constrains their economic growth”.
Continue reading...Sober assessment of UK failings from body set up by a Conservative chancellor poses ideological problem for government
The cost of upgrading the UK’s infrastructure to make it fit for the future is likely to be £30bn a year of public money, plus about £40bn-50bn a year of private sector investment, the National Infrastructure Commission has said.
That figure of £30bn is strikingly similar to the Labour party’s promised investment of £28bn a year to meet the UK’s net zero targets, shift the economy permanently to a low-carbon footing, and create new green jobs.
Continue reading...Critics say boom in sales of SUVs and dual-cab utes has been disastrous for safety and the environment – and car parks may be at risk of collapse
Parking spaces in Australia may soon become bigger as a response to the nation’s love affair with SUVs and large cars, but planners fear parking lots are at risk of collapse under the weight of increasingly enormous vehicles.
For the past few decades, the standard size for car spaces on streets and in parking lots has been 5.4 metres long and 2.4 to 2.6 metres wide – big enough to allow a Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore to park comfortably.
Continue reading...Evolyn says route is ‘strategic and high demand’ and it intends to launch its first service in 2025
A Spanish rail company has announced plans to launch a Paris to London high-speed train service to rival Eurostar.
The company, Evolyn, said the route was “strategic and high demand” and that it intended to launch its first service in 2025. It had reached an agreement to buy 12 high-speed trains from the French manufacturer Alstom and had the option of acquiring four more, it added.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Labour leader to pledge biggest expansion of devolution since party was last in power
A new Labour government would give all towns and cities in England new powers and funding to boost local economies, deliver thousands of new homes and create high-quality jobs, Keir Starmer will announce.
In the biggest expansion of devolution since Labour was last in power, he will pledge that councils and combined authorities would get more control over housing and planning, skills, energy and transport of the kind currently held by London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.
Continue reading...After French capital hosted fashion week and Rugby World Cup there are concerns the problem will spread
Paris is burning its luggage and bed linen as it battles a “scourge” of bedbugs, stoking fears of infestation around the world as pest controllers report an uptick in inquiries and transport operators and hoteliers seek to assuage concerns.
The city of light is reportedly under siege from the nocturnal bloodsuckers, leading the French transport minister, Clément Beaune, to meet transport operators. “It’s a real nightmare,” says Yacine, a schoolteacher in Paris who declined to give his surname. “I’m so afraid to take the Métro, I don’t go to the cinema – it’s very alarmant.”
Continue reading...David Pocock and Barbara Pocock are the latest in a string of independent and minor party politicians to renounce the ‘Canberra bonus’ in the name of integrity
A number of MPs and senators are handing back their access to Qantas’ prestigious chairman’s lounge in the name of integrity after a series of sagas that have painted the domestic carrier in negative light.
It comes as the airline has come under fire in recent months over its influence in federal government and a recent high court ruling finding it had illegally sacked workers during the pandemic.
Continue reading...Ben Wilson told most of his art on discarded gum to be removed during engineering and cleaning work
An artist who paints tiny pictures on discarded chewing gum has pleaded for his works to be saved after being told most of them will be removed from the Millennium Bridge in London as part of engineering work.
Ben Wilson, nicknamed “the chewing gum man”, has been painting on pieces of chewing gum trodden into the bridge since 2013.
Continue reading...Prime minister’s move criticised as ‘salting the earth’ so Birmingham-Crewe line cannot be built
A future Labour government would not be able to easily reverse Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2 as he has “spitefully” authorised the sale of properties that were subject to compulsory purchase orders on part of the route.
Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool city region, said the move killed HS2 “stone dead” and would “tie any future government’s hands and make the delivery of HS2 for the north all but impossible”.
Continue reading...West Midlands mayor says he remains committed to high-speed rail link to Manchester after suggestion he might quit over move
The Conservative mayor for the West Midlands has decided not to quit over HS2, after the prime minister confirmed he was scrapping the high-speed rail line from Birmingham to Manchester.
Andy Street had lobbied heavily to keep the northern leg of the project, and a spokesperson said on Wednesday morning he might quit if his campaign was unsuccessful.
Continue reading...PM declines to reveal if Manchester to Birmingham line will be scrapped amid speculation over soaring costs
Rishi Sunak has insisted he is not going to be forced into a “premature decision” over the fate of the HS2 high-speed rail line as speculation about the multibillion pound project continued to overshadow the Conservative conference.
“I am not going to be forced into a premature decision because it is good for someone’s TV programme,” the prime minister told BBC Breakfast.
Continue reading...Furious city mayors make a plea for the project north of Birmingham amid ugly scenes at Tory conference
So what does cancelling HS2 north of Birmingham look like? There were ugly scenes at the Conservative conference hall even before the official death knell sounds: an uneasy HS2 minister batting off questions as above his pay grade, furious metro mayors declaring battle, railway leaders’ heads spinning at the logic.
In the real world, it’s even worse. From the massive crater and demolished homes, business and public spaces outside London Euston station to the hundreds of millions spent on compulsory purchases of houses on the original routes north from Birmingham, the consequences of a train line that may never exist are all too tangible. About 30,000 people are working on the scheme – and many of those believed they would have jobs for the long term.
Continue reading...Tory mayor of West Midlands says PM in danger of ‘cancelling the future’ as bitter row threatens to derail conference
Rishi Sunak has become embroiled in a bitter row with regional politicians, the transport industry and members of his own party as he prepared to announce the cancellation of the multibillion high speed rail line to Manchester.
The prime minister is set to call an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, where ministers are expected to give their approval to the biggest infrastructure climbdown in a generation.
Continue reading...Prime minister says ‘the best tax cut we can give is to cut inflation’ after Michael Gove says taxes should be cut before general election
The BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is starting. As well as Rishi Sunak, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, is also being interviewed.
Q: Do you still think we’ve had enough of experts?
Economic forecasting was invented to make astrology look respectable.
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