Bank holiday weekend and start of school holidays take place at same time, with high traffic volumes expected
Drivers are being warned to expect long delays over Easter as millions of getaway trips lead to soaring traffic volumes and congested motorways.
The RAC said that more than 14m journeys on some popular routes could take twice as long as normal, as the first bank holiday weekend of the spring coincides with the start of a two-week holiday for many schools.
Continue reading...No dates announced for industrial action, but stoppages could begin as soon as 8 April, says PCS union
Border Force staff at Heathrow have voted to strike in a dispute over shift patterns.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said 600 of its members, who carry out immigration controls and passport checks, voted 90% in favour of strike action.
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‘There’ll be a lot of people grieving today’
Both Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek were asked about soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon.
The Fitzgibbon family are a family of honour. Jack died in service to our nation. Joel has served our nation. The family will be absolutely grieving. We hope and pray Jack is with our maker, give comfort to them. You’ve seen the Fitzgibbons, you’ve watched them on television. They’re a great family. He is also my mate. We’ll turn up and give what support we can to Jack’s family.
It’s just the worst thing that any parent can imagine and so our hearts go out to Joel and Diane and their family and the friends and comrades that Jack had in the service as well. We know there’ll be a lot of people grieving today.
Well, first of all, of course it’s not on government devices in Australia either. We’ve got a ban here in Australia on government devices. But there are 8.5 million Australians who are using it.
We’ll take the advice of our security and intelligence agencies on anything we need to do around TikTok. I think people should be careful of the data that they put online in general. Like I say, if the security and intelligence agencies give us advice on TikTok, we’ll take it.
Continue reading...Rideshare company agrees to settle long-running class-action lawsuit, finally giving cab and hire-car drivers the compensation they deserve, lawyers say
Uber will cough up almost $272m to compensate taxi and hirecar drivers who lost out when the rideshare company “aggressively” moved into the Australian market.
A class action against Uber was expected to go to trial in the supreme court of Victoria on Monday but judge Lisa Nichols vacated it after the rideshare giant agreed to the $271.8m settlement.
Continue reading...Roadworks mean stretch between junctions 10 and 11 will be closed for first time, from 9pm on Friday to 6am on Monday
Drivers have been warned to steer well clear, turn off the satnav and stick to the official diversions as some of the biggest roadworks since the Romans results in part of the M25 motorway fully closed for the first time in its history this weekend.
Epic traffic jams are anticipated, with a five-mile stretch of Britain’s busiest motorway, the London orbital motorway, closed for engineering from 9pm on Friday.
Continue reading...Train maker Alstom plans fast service skirting Birmingham as Ryan Reynolds’ football club takeover reaps in ever more benefits
Direct trains could next year connect Wrexham to London, with a new service capitalising on the town’s Hollywood-meets-football mini-boom.
The train manufacturer Alstom is bidding to set up the Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway with a promise of cheaper, more comfortable trains straight to London.
Continue reading...Automobile Association wants to see the calculations behind national vehicle efficiency standards
The nation’s peak motorist organisation has called on the Albanese government to release in full the modelling underpinning its proposed new laws aimed at removing the worst polluting cars from Australian roads and hastening the uptake of cleaner vehicles.
The Australian Automobile Association (AAA), in its submission responding to the government’s proposed national vehicle efficiency standard (NVES), reiterated it has long supported such a scheme. But it said Labor should “be more transparent” about how it arrived at the calculations supporting its preferred, more ambitious targets.
Continue reading...Road crash deaths are the leading cause of death for children aged 1 to 13 in Australia and experts say many could be prevented with better restraints
Leading child safety experts are calling for regulations around child car restraints to be brought into line with the medical evidence and similar countries worldwide, saying that “a large proportion” of Australian children are being put in danger of life-altering traumatic injuries or death every day due to inappropriate use of car and booster seats.
The calls come as the state and federal ministers for transport undertake a review of Australia’s child restraint rules, which have been condemned as out of step with safe practice guidelines.
Continue reading...Research looked at three London boroughs to value overall health benefits of active travel over 20 years at up to £4,800 per head
Policies to help people walk and cycle such as low-traffic neighbourhoods can create public health benefits as much as 100 times greater than the cost of the schemes, a long-term study of active travel measures has concluded.
The research, based on six years of surveys among thousands of people living in three outer London boroughs that introduced LTNs or similar schemes, found they tended to prompt people to switch some trips from cars to active travel, although the effects were varied.
Continue reading...Drivers in capital cities faced increases of 12.4% in 2023 while the average driver in regional areas was hit with a 13.7% rise
Australian households are under increasing budget pressure when it comes to car travel as transport costs balloon to three times the inflation rate.
The typical household’s transport costs rose by about 13% in 2023, outpacing the inflation rate of 4.1%.
Continue reading...Alert says there could be ‘tricky driving conditions in a few places’ after unexpectedly cold overnight temperatures
An unexpected cold snap has prompted the Met Office to issue a yellow weather warning after snow fell across parts of the west of England.
The warning covered an area from south of Bristol to north of Worcester, and extends to Hereford to the west and Swindon to the east.
Continue reading...In London, Tube and bus fares are being frozen and prices reduced during rush hour and on Fridays
Rail fares in England and Wales will rise by 4.9% on Sunday, adding hundreds of pounds to annual travel costs for many commuters.
Campaigners said passengers would be “rightly angry” at the latest increase, above the current inflation rate of 4%, despite the government arguing that it had made a significant intervention to keep the fare rise down.
Continue reading...The $5bn post-pandemic spending program ‘not informed by robust research or analysis’ auditor general finds
Labor has accused the former New South Wales Coalition government of “pork barrelling at the public’s expense” after the auditor general found the design of a $5bn scheme to funnel money into areas worst hit by Covid lockdowns “lacked integrity”.
In a report released on Wednesday, Margaret Crawford found that more than $1bn was allocated to “low or moderate merit” infrastructure projects in western Sydney as part of the massive post-pandemic spending program WestInvest.
Continue reading...Ministers say smaller towns and cities in north of England and Midlands to benefit from scrapping of Leeds and Manchester lines
About £4.7bn that would have been spent bringing HS2 to Manchester and Leeds is to be reallocated to transport projects in smaller towns and cities in the north of England and Midlands, ministers have said.
The money is specifically for communities that are outside city regions, in places such as Blackpool, Hull and Leicester, as well as counties including Staffordshire and Lincolnshire, which don’t have directly elected metro mayors.
Continue reading...French startup hoping to develop Ballarat manufacturing hub says its dirigibles will transport freight too cumbersome for road
They’re huge, can float through the air, and are synonymous with one of history’s most notorious transport disasters – but airships could be set for a cargo-oriented, green renaissance.
French startup Flying Whales has a vision to begin manufacturing its airships – which instead of the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg, will rely on 180,000 cubic metres of helium – by 2025, with an eye to gaining regulatory certification to begin operating in skies by the end of 2027.
Continue reading...Hrdlicka’s abrupt departure comes as airline’s owners plan to push ahead with relisting on stock exchange
Virgin Australia’s chief executive, Jayne Hrdlicka, has abruptly stepped down after almost four years in charge, raising questions about the timing of the airline’s much-hyped relisting on the stock exchange.
On Tuesday, the airline announced that Hrdlicka had the support of the Virgin Australia board in deciding to “the time was right” to move on. She will stay on as chief executive while a global search for her replacement begins.
Continue reading...Mayor Sadiq Khan thinks his new line names for the capital’s ever-expanding rail network bring clarity, but not everyone agrees
The ancient Egyptians saw names as magical. It was said that Isis tricked Ra, the sun god, into telling her his true name, to give her power over him and put her son Horus on the throne.
Londoners have a different take. The Northern line was nearly named TootanCamden in the 1920s, the historian Robert Graves wrote – a pun on the Tutankhamun craze of the time and the line’s route through Tooting and Camden.
Continue reading...Web of orange on tube map revamped to celebrate city’s unique local history and culture, says mayor
The London Overground is to be rebranded into six lines with names inspired by the capital’s and the country’s diverse modern history, from Windrush to the Lionesses.
The web of orange on the tube map will be replaced by six colours and routes in August to help make the capital’s public transport network easier to navigate.
Continue reading...Italy’s data protection body investigates claims police shared names and addresses with firm collecting penalties for TfL
The names and addresses of thousands of EU drivers were unlawfully accessed by Italian police and shared with the company that collects Ulez penalties on behalf of Transport for London (TfL), investigators believe.
The Italian data protection authority is investigating claims by Belgium’s government that an unnamed police department misused official powers to pass the personal details of Belgian drivers to Euro Parking Collections, which is employed by TfL to issue fines to enforce London’s low emission zone (Lez) and ultra-low emission zone.
Continue reading...Grants needed towards buying EVs as well as a battery health testing standard to reassure consumers
Ministers need to intervene to boost the secondhand electric vehicle market and allay “uncertainty and concerns” over the health of their batteries, a House of Lords committee has said.
Peers on the environment and climate change committee urged the government to step up efforts to encourage electric vehicle adoption amid consumer jitters over the cost of vehicles, the longevity of their batteries and the availability of charging points.
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