Category Archives: Transport

TfL hit by £100m fall in ad revenue across tube, rail and bus network

Posted on by

Exclusive: record low level of London journeys during Covid crisis drives down commercial income

Transport for London (TfL) has recorded a £100m plunge in advertising revenue across its network of tube stations, trains and buses after Covid-19 pandemic restrictions kept commuters away from travelling to work.

TfL’s advertising estate – which comprises more than 100,000 billboards, posters and panels throughout the capital’s tube and rail network, in trains and on buses and shelters – is one of the largest and most valuable in the world.

Continue reading...

UK road-building scheme breaches climate commitments, high court told

Posted on by

Transport Action Network says £27bn programme does not take account of Paris climate agreement

The government’s plans for a multibillion pound road-building scheme would breach the UK’s legal commitments to tackle the climate crisis and critically undermine the country’s standing ahead of a key summit later this year, the high court has heard.

Lawyers acting for the Transport Action Network (TAN) argued that plans for the UK’s huge £27bn road building programme – set out in its Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2) last year – did not take into account the government’s obligations to reach net zero emissions by 2050 or its commitments under the Paris climate agreement.

Continue reading...

Welsh government to suspend all future road-building plans

Posted on by

Deputy minister for climate change will announce move as part of plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050

The Labour-led Welsh government is to freeze new road-building projects as part of its plans to tackle the climate emergency, and an external panel will review all proposed schemes.

The deputy minister for climate change, Lee Waters, is to tell the Welsh parliament on Tuesday afternoon: “Since 1990, Welsh emissions have fallen by 31%. But to reach our statutory target of net zero emissions by 2050, we need to do much more.

Continue reading...

Portugal removed from ‘green list’ of Covid travel destinations

Posted on by

No countries added to England’s quarantine-free holiday register as seven moved from amber to red

Portugal has been taken off the UK’s “green list” of destinations from which people can return to England without having to quarantine. The government has said the threat of new Covid-19 variants means that less restricted travel could jeopardise domestic unlocking.

No countries were added to the green list, but seven more – Afghanistan, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Trinidad and Tobago – were moved from the amber list to the red list of nations to which almost all travel is barred, the Department for Transport said.

Continue reading...

Woman hit by branch when leaning out train window near Bath, inquest hears

Posted on by

Bethan Roper, 28, of south Wales, was killed travelling home from Christmas shopping trip in 2018

A woman died after she was struck by an overhanging tree branch when she leant out of a train window as she travelled home after a Christmas shopping trip, an inquest has heard.

Bethan Roper, 28, who worked for the Welsh Refugee Council, sustained fatal head injuries while a passenger on a Great Western Railway (GWR) train travelling at about 75mph.

Continue reading...

UK rail passengers facing disruption after cracks found on high-speed trains

Posted on by

Suspension of GWR and LNER services preventing many from reaching events such as funerals, holidays and family meetings

Rail passengers are facing significant disruption after cracks were found on high-speed trains, with services on Great Western Railway and London North Eastern Railway services suspended.

People who wrote to the Guardian via a callout shared how they had been affected by the train chaos, from struggling to travel to the funeral of a loved one to cancelling long-awaited birthday picnics with friends.

Continue reading...

Inquest to be held into Covid death of rail worker allegedly spat at by customer

Posted on by

Senior coroner says there needs to be an investigation into what may have been the ‘unnatural’ death of Belly Mujinga

An inquest will held into the death of Belly Mujinga, the railway worker who died with Covid-19 after an alleged incident where she was coughed on and spat at by a customer.

Mujinga, 47, died last April, two weeks after the alleged incident on the concourse at London’s Victoria station where she worked as a sales clerk for Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR).

Continue reading...

Cat on a fast train roof holds up London to Manchester service

Posted on by

Feline was a whisker away from a 125mph ride when it was spotted at Euston station on Tuesday evening

You hear about delays from leaves on the line, maybe even the occasional swan, but on Tuesday evening a cat was discovered on a train roof at London Euston station – a whisker away from hitching a 125mph ride up north.

The tabby was spotted curled up on top of an Avanti West Coast train about half an hour before it was due to depart for Manchester at 9pm and refused to move.

Continue reading...

Hammersmith Bridge illuminated in Valentine’s message to government

Posted on by

Residents project red illumination on closed west London landmark to highlight delays to repair

Hammersmith Bridge has been illuminated bright red in a Valentine’s Day stunt aimed at highlighting delays to its repair.

The 133-year-old west London bridge has been closed to traffic since April 2019 when cracks appeared in its pedestals. It then closed to pedestrian, cyclist and river traffic in August after a heatwave caused the faults to “significantly increase”.

Continue reading...

‘I couldn’t be prouder’: 16-year-old joins father in HS2 protest tunnel

Posted on by

Rory Hooper, Swampy’s son, joins environmental activists to protest against environmental destruction

Veteran environmental activist Dan Hooper, known as Swampy, who is one of nine protesters in a tunnel in central London to raise the alarm about the environmental destruction they believe the high speed rail project HS2 will cause, is in the tunnel with his 16-year-old son, it has emerged.

The activists have been in the tunnel close to Euston station since Tuesday to raise awareness of the climate emergency and to try to halt work on the HS2 project which is under way in the Euston area. They argue that many ancient woodlands will be destroyed by the project. HS2 says it is planting 7m new trees.

Continue reading...

London buses turned into ambulances to ease Covid strain

Posted on by

Exclusive: Adapted single-deckers with seats removed and oxygen onboard will transfer patients

NHS staff are preparing to transport patients using two London buses that have been converted into makeshift ambulances, in another sign of the strain Covid is putting on the capital’s health services.

Most of the seats on the single-decker buses have been removed so that each can carry four patients, in an attempt to relieve the intense pressure on hospitals and the London ambulance service.

Continue reading...

Space out and cover up: how to make travelling by car more Covid-safe

Posted on by

If sharing a car is unavoidable, there are a few ways to reduce the risk of transmission

While the UK is under lockdown, travel for work and other exemptions is still allowed. We take a look at how to stay safer when cooped up together, whether in a taxi or a private car:

Continue reading...

Eurostar warns of ‘risk to survival’ without government help

Posted on by

The cross-Channel train service has seen a 95% fall in passengers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Eurostar has said it is facing an existential threat, as business leaders pleaded with the government to step in and save the “vital link” with Europe.

A 95% drop in passenger numbers has brought the cross-Channel train service to its knees, and the company reiterated on Sunday that while government loans had been extended to aviation, international high-speed rail had also been severely affected by the pandemic.

Continue reading...

Questions will be asked over timing of closing UK travel corridors

Posted on by

Analysis: poor implementation ends another week of shifting Covid policy by the government

The announced closure of all international travel corridors to the UK marks the end of another week of changing policy, with the timing and implementation dismaying many.

Travel corridors will be axed in effect from Monday morning. The corridors, which exempted inbound travellers from the requirement to quarantine for 10 days, may make little practical difference to the airline and travel industry in the current context.

Continue reading...

UK rail services to be reduced to 72% of pre-pandemic levels

Posted on by

Timetable cuts to be announced Thursday are less than 50% reduction in services that was expected

Rail services in Britain will be reduced to 72% of pre-pandemic levels over the next few weeks, and passengers are being asked to check before they travel that their service is running.

The cuts, which will be announced from Thursday, are less than the 50% reduction in services that had been expected. Train operators have focused on retaining services at morning and evening peak travel times so that key workers such as NHS staff can get to their workplace.

Continue reading...

Sydney cycling: has the city that ‘hates bikes’ finally turned the corner?

Posted on by

Almost 7km of cycleways have been created in six months, a sign the government conflicts that have held up progress may be on the wane

When the officials charged with making cycling safer and more accessible in Sydney meet their international counterparts, they can expect to be greeted with a mixture of incredulity and sympathy.

“I don’t think anyone has a tougher time than we do,” says the City of Sydney’s executive manager of cycling strategy, Sebastian Smyth.

Continue reading...

Come clean on logjams at British borders as new Brexit rules kick in, ministers told

Posted on by

Amid confusion for lorry drivers in Kent, logistics firms call for greater transparency to help lessen disruption

Ministers are facing demands for more honesty and transparency over any logjams at the UK border in the wake of Britain’s exit from the EU, amid concerns that waves of disruption will last for six months.

Several lorry drivers are understood to have been turned away at Dover for not having the right paperwork following the end of the Brexit transition period last week. It has caused concern among logistics and manufacturing companies that more severe problems could occur as trade flows increase later this month.

Continue reading...

Anger of 10,000 lorry drivers ‘held hostage’ in Covid Christmas standoff

Posted on by

Hauliers stranded in their cabs on UK roads say they are being used as political pawns

Juan Andrés had braced himself for what promised to be an atypical holiday season. But the lorry driver from southern Spain never imagined that Christmas Day would be spent in his cab tucking into a ham and cheese sandwich – among provisions handed out by the British military – as he inched towards the Channel.

“I would describe it as a kidnapping,” said the 52-year-old when asked about the diplomatic impasse that left him stranded on British roads for nearly a week. As many as 10,000 lorries from across Europe were stuck after France temporarily closed its border over fears of a fast-spreading coronavirus variant, reopening only to those drivers who could show a negative coronavirus test.

Continue reading...