Campaigners welcome DfT’s temporary £60m subsidy to cut emissions and congestion, but say it should go further
Bus fares in many places across England will be capped at £2 for the winter under a government-backed campaign to encourage people back on to public transport.
Single fares on most major operators’ services will be limited from January until March under the scheme.
Continue reading...People urged only to travel if absolutely necessary on last weekend before Christmas
Rail passengers face another day of reduced services on Saturday as thousands of Rail, Maritime and Transport workers’ union (RMT) staff continue a 48-hour strike.
People have been urged to only attempt travel if absolutely necessary on the last full weekend before Christmas, with only a skeleton service running and all train journeys ending by early evening.
Continue reading...Payout awarded for period in which Avanti was UK’s worst train operator for delays, Labour analysis found
Avanti West Coast was handed millions of pounds of taxpayer-funded bonuses for a period in which it was Britain’s worst train operator for delays, according to Labour party analysis.
The analysis, which used Department for Transport (DfT) figures published on Thursday, found the company was awarded the highest possible rating for “operational performance” and “customer satisfaction” between 1 April and 18 September last year. Those ratings contributed to a bonus payout of £4.1m.
Continue reading...Large parts of national rail network grind to halt as RMT union members strike for increased pay
There is similar pessimism about the prospects for a deal to prevent later rail strikes from the other side of the table.
Asked if there is a glimmer of hope in the negotiations, Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines earlier this morning told BBC Breakfast (via PA Media):
It’s hard to see that today. I’ve learned, you know, through a long career, that sometimes the light is just around the corner.
But where I stand today, I’d have to say that with the level of disruption the RMT are imposing, the way forward isn’t obvious.
Well, we hope not. We want to get a deal but at the moment, there is no deal in sight.
So we’ve got the schedule down at the moment, which is running for the next four weeks. We will review that at the end of that if there’s no settlement on the table and we’ll decide what our next steps are, but at the moment there is no settlement to be had.
Continue reading...Rail bosses and unions also signal they will not budge, as RMT’s Mick Lynch says there is ‘no deal in sight’
Rishi Sunak has said the government is unable to shift its position on pay, effectively implying the only way for strikes across the railway and other sectors would be for unions to back down.
In comments to his cabinet on the first day of four weeks of disruption to train services, the prime minister said: “While the government will do all we can to minimise disruption, the only way we can stop it completely is by unions going back around the table and calling off these strikes.”
Continue reading...Snowfall causes issues across parts of UK as cold snap intensifies
Daniel Duffield, a 22-year-old off-duty paramedic, was stuck on the M25 for more than two-and-a-half hours this morning, while attempting to travel home to Birmingham from London.
He told PA Media that vehicles have been “stationary with very small movement”.
I expected some traffic due to weather but nothing this bad. Traffic appeared to be at a standstill for miles and miles. Other drivers were turning their engines off presumably to save fuel due to the uncertainty. A few people were stretching their legs due to delays too.
Continue reading...Large parts of UK hit by ice, fog and snow with airports forced to close and rail and roads affected
The UK has experienced its coldest night of the year so far, with temperatures in Scotland dipping below -15C.
Braemar in Aberdeenshire recorded -15.7C overnight, the Met Office said. It came as commuters faced travel chaos on Monday morning as large parts of the UK were hit by ice, fog and snow.
Continue reading...‘We have had to rethink the ways we do things’, says farmer who dusted off his 1973 petrol-powered truck
Nick Holliday’s 1973 International Acco truck sat dormant out the front of his farm for years, as a decoration collecting dust. But diesel price rises have given the old truck a new lease of life.
“We have had to rethink the ways we do things,” Holliday said.
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Continue reading...The prime minister says due process needs to be followed after revelations about Baroness Mone in the Guardian
Everyone is hard up at the moment – including the Conservative party, it seems. According to Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham, the party is raising membership fees by 56%.
This morning Steve Barclay said Rishi Sunak was taking “a very strong stand in terms of the priority of getting inflation down”. (See 10.02am.) But not for Tory members, it seems.
Continue reading...MPs question transport secretary about reports government stipulation may have scuppered rail deal
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, has refused to deny reports that the government pushed rail companies to include future use of driver-only trains as a condition of a pay deal, thus potentially scuppering an agreement.
Under sustained questioning before the Commons transport committee, Harper at first said he had not seen the report, before repeatedly declining to engage with the subject beyond saying that reforms in how the railways were run were necessary to make savings.
Continue reading...Five metro mayors meet transport secretary saying action needed to avoid ‘Christmas chaos’
Mayors in the north of England have called for immediate government action to tackle continuing rail misery, warning time is running out to avoid a Christmas of chaos.
The five metro mayors for Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and North of Tyne met Mark Harper, the transport secretary, in offices near to Manchester Piccadilly station on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Avanti West Coast, which received £343m subsidy, had worst punctuality performance among train operators
Labour has called on ministers to claw back £12m in dividends paid by Avanti West Coast to its shareholders last year, when it was subsidised by £343m by the taxpayer.
Figures released by the rail watchdog on Tuesday showed that Avanti paid out £12m in 2021-22 from management and performance fees.
Continue reading...National Highways has obtained an injunction to ‘prevent unlawful protests’ until November 2023
A high court injunction has been granted that would impose fresh penalties on Just Stop Oil activists for demonstrating on the country’s busiest motorway until November next year.
National Highways said it had secured the civil order to “prevent unlawful protests” on the M25, after a series of actions by the environmental group caused significant traffic disruption.
Continue reading...People urged to travel only if necessary as train drivers with Aslef at 11 rail operators take industrial action over pay
Passengers across Britain face another day of cancelled or disrupted rail services on Saturday as drivers for 11 train companies go on strike.
Train operators urged people to travel only if necessary and to check before setting out, with no trains or only a handful of services running on affected routes.
Continue reading...Dominic Perrottet says the two sides agreed to a Fair Work Commission process to resolve long-running fight
The New South Wales government says it has carved out a deal with the state’s rail union to modify a fleet of trains and halt industrial action, after months of bitter negotiation.
The parties had been at odds over whether or not to make safety modifications to a multibillion-dollar Korean-built fleet of intercity trains, which have been in storage since 2019.
Continue reading...Both Labor and the Coalition claim they could achieve forecast surpluses after releasing their costings
Victoria’s major parties have released the costings of their promises – despite the Coalition initially being unable to quantify the total amount committed and Labor’s document not providing timelines to provide major health and transport projects.
Less than two days out from Saturday’s election, the parties have also revealed they intend to draw on contingency funds – which are usually set aside to cover unforeseen circumstances – in order to prop up the state’s finances and achieve budget surpluses.
Continue reading...One in 26 journeys disrupted with government accused of ‘abject failure’ to tackle worst offenders such as Avanti West Coast
Rail cancellations have reached their highest level on record with more than 314,000 trains fully or partly cancelled across Great Britain in a year, a Guardian analysis reveals.
Figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) show that the proportion of cancelled services has more than doubled since 2015, rising to one in 26 of all train journeys being disrupted in the year to 15 October, the latest date for which figures are available.
Continue reading...Residents rally over scheme they believe will benefit only bicycling students and dons
In 1381, a mob sacked university buildings and burned books in the town square, shouting: “Away with the learning of clerks!” More recently, battle lines have been drawn over plans to build homes on green belt land and attempts to ban wild swimming in the river Cam.
Now, tensions between town and gown are rising again in Cambridge. This time, it’s over proposals to introduce a £5 congestion charge on weekday car journeys to the city, with a protest march to Parker’s Piece common planned for 27 November.
Continue reading...Flooding shuts schools and disrupts travel, with severe weather warnings in place and ‘highest risk to riverside communities’
Police Scotland have “stood down” searches for a woman who was swept into the River Don near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire on Friday as heavy rain continued to batter much of eastern Scotland.
The force said in a statement late on Friday evening: “Around 3.05pm on Friday, November 18, police were called to the River Don near to Monymusk following a report of concern for a woman in the water.
Continue reading...No one was injured in the incident, which occurred near Inverleigh along the Hamilton Highway in regional Victoria
Dozens of shipping containers have been thrown from the tracks when a freight train derailed in Victoria’s west, closing the rail corridor to Adelaide.
The train derailed near Inverleigh along the Hamilton Highway outside Geelong at about 5.30am on Monday.
Continue reading...