CAA data shows flights departed more than 23 minutes late last year, with Birmingham and Manchester second and third-worst
London Gatwick is the UK’s worst airport for flight delays, official figures showed, with air traffic control issues blamed for continuing disruption.
In 2024, flights departed on average more than 23 minutes late from Britain’s second-biggest airport, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority.
Continue reading...Coroner calls for action to avoid future deaths after four killed by drivers with failing eyesight in northern England
An inquest into the deaths of four people killed by drivers with failing eyesight in northern England has found enforcement of visual legal standards for motorists is “ineffective and unsafe”.
The HM senior coroner for Lancashire, Dr James Adeley, has sent a report to the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, calling for action to be taken to prevent future deaths.
Continue reading...LSPH chief executive announces ‘groundbreaking proposal’ intended to grow international rail travel from the UK
Cross-Channel train services serving new destinations will be cheaper to run under a scheme to grow international rail travel from the UK.
London St Pancras Highspeed (LSPH), which owns and operates the railway and stations from the capital to the Channel tunnel, said it would slash charges for operators planning new routes.
Continue reading...Concerns about cable theft raised with airport before substation fire but Heathrow chief defends handling of incident
Airlines warned Heathrow about risks to its power supply days before the airport was shut down by a substation fire, a Commons committee has been told.
Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, apologised for the disruption, which affected more than 200,000 passengers on Friday 21 March, but defended the decision to close as he said staying open was potentially “disastrous”.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage has tried to fend off claims that Reform UK would force people to pay to see a doctor
Nigel Farage has tried to fend off claims that Reform UK would force people to pay to see a doctor.
In an interview this morning ahead of big rally the party is holding in Birmingham later, Farage claimed that he had always been committed to healthcare being “free at the point of delivery” – even though in the past he has said he would be “open to anything” in terms of reforming the NHS funding model.
The NHS is something we believe in, or we used to believe in, but now doesn’t work, and everyone knows that.
Well, they’re paying already. They pay through tax.
They’re two different things. I’m not asking people to pay to go to the doctor. We’ve never said anything other than healthcare should be provided free at the point of delivery.
Only if they can afford it. That’s the point. Only if they can afford it.
At the moment, they pay for their healthcare through taxes. Is there a better way of doing this?
The French do it much better with less funding. There is a lesson there. If you can afford it, you pay; if you can’t, you don’t. It works incredibly well.
Nigel Farage’s plan to make hard-working families pay eye-watering sums to get treatment when they’re sick is enough to send a shiver down the spine of the nation. Everyone deserves a world-class health service, not just the wealthy.
Labour is investing in the NHS, Farage would cut it and give the money to the wealthiest. Labour is bringing waiting lists down, Farage would send them soaring. Labour is giving people their NHS back, Farage would give them a bill.
If Reform brought in an insurance-based system, comparable international systems show that patients could be left paying over £120 for a GP appointment, with an A&E visit potentially setting people back by upwards of £1,300. Routine operations like hip replacements could cost an eyewatering £23,000.
Continue reading...Airlines could face higher charges to help fund new system at airport, which was shut down by substation fire
The chief executive of Heathrow has said it could cost about £1bn to install a more resilient power supply system to prevent a repeat of the outage that shut Europe’s busiest airport last week, and that airlines could pay higher charges to help fund it.
Thomas Woldbye, who has been criticised for going to bed on the night of the crisis so he could be “better rested” to handle the fallout the following day, has said he was frustrated the incident occurred and would like to have handled it better.
Continue reading...Body representing over 90 firms says it could take airport to court over costs of closure if issue not ‘amicably settled’
A body representing more than 90 airlines using Heathrow airport said there might be a case for legal action if a settlement over the costs incurred from Friday’s closure after a fire is not reached.
Europe’s largest airport was closed in the early hours of Friday morning after the blaze at a major electricity substation hit electricity supplies.
Continue reading...Understanding the rightwing backlash over the government scheme helping people with serious disabilities get cars
Motability really ought to be a boring subject: a government scheme helping people with serious disabilities get a car by using a portion of their benefits to pay for the lease. But over the past week, anyone who had never heard of Motability would have got a more lurid impression.
First reported in the Daily Mail, and then in a string of follow-up stories, Motability was portrayed not as a useful mechanism for helping people with disabilities but an outrageous example of con artists milking the taxpayer.
Continue reading...Talks to take place with operators about the scheme, announced in 2020, which has failed to make any grants
Ministers are considering diverting money from a £950m scheme to install rapid chargers for electric cars on the UK’s motorways, announced five years ago, after it failed to make a single grant.
Much of the cash allocated to the rapid charging fund (RCF) could be redirected to investments in other charging schemes, or to support the transition to electric vehicles more broadly, although decisions have yet to be made, according to a person close to discussions in government.
Continue reading...More than a thousand flights were cancelled on Friday after a fire at an electrical substation caused a power cut
Heathrow airport has returned to normal business two days after it was forced to close when a fire at an electrical substation caused a power cut.
Europe’s busiest airport had more than 1,000 flights cancelled on Friday after the fire at the substation in Hayes, west London.
Continue reading...Government says lessons need to be learned after the substation fire that caused chaos for 300,000 passengers
The government has launched an urgent investigation into the power shutdown that crippled Heathrow airport, with experts warning it was a “wake-up call” about vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical infrastructure.
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has commissioned the independent National Energy System Operator (Neso) to investigate the incident and assess the UK’s energy resilience. The regulator Ofgem warned it would “not hesitate” to take action if there were any breaches of standards or licence obligations.
Continue reading...Thomas Woldbye says most other airports operate similar back-up power systems to Heathrow, as Ed Miliband announces investigation
The chief executive of Heathrow has defended the running of the airport after a fire at an electrical substation stopped about 1,300 planes and disrupted the journeys of hundreds of thousands of global passengers.
It comes after Willie Walsh, the International Air Transport Association’s director general, criticised Heathrow for the disruption, while the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has now ordered the National Energy System Operator to “urgently investigate” the outage.
Continue reading...Report from the Commons transport select committee calls for a unified complaints service
Disabled people’s access to transport has been called a “national embarrassment” by MPs on a parliamentary committee, who said a new enforcement regime was needed to uphold their right to travel.
A report from the Commons transport select committee highlighted the experience of people with disabilities in using British transport services, from accounts of wheelchair users left on planes to taxi drivers refusing to take a guide dog, or people being unable to navigate pavements blocked by obstructions.
Continue reading...Australians are hooked on tax perks while road fatalities and emissions are surging and spending on petrol and insurance increasing
It’s impossible not to have noticed it – cars have been getting bigger and bigger, and SUVs and four-door utes have become Australia’s new family car. Gone are the days of the Commodore or Corolla fighting it out as Australia’s most popular vehicle. We’re now well into the era of the Ranger, RAV4, HiLux and Outlander, as well as increasing flirtations with US-style pickup trucks, and it shows no sign of stopping.
It happened gradually, despite the mounting evidence about some of the problems posed by these vehicles.
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Continue reading...RMT union wins 87% backing from members for improved package for train managers at Avanti West Coast
Train managers on Britain’s biggest intercity service, Avanti West Coast, have settled a dispute over rest-day working, ending a series of weekend strikes.
The RMT union said 87% of its members had voted to accept a deal including additional pay for working weekends and an agreement on the allocation of staffing for extra shifts.
Continue reading...About 60% of the 1.2m cars that drove out of the showroom last year were SUVs, but road fatalities reached a 12-year high too
George Upjohn vividly remembers his interaction with the driver of an SUV after a collision that happened while cycling in Sydney’s south.
“I had blood all over my shins and when I hobbled up and asked why she didn’t turn her head to check to her side before veering into my lane, she said she didn’t need to because the sensor in her car would have alerted her to me. She said I must have been at fault and rode into her,” the 32-year-old claims.
Continue reading...Minicab drivers say Uber’s bid to apply tax to all rides would put many out of business and leave people stranded
Two British taxi companies have launched a crowdfunding drive for the last leg of a lengthy legal battle with Uber that could result in higher cab fares.
Uber will seek, at a supreme court hearing in July, a ruling on contractual models that affect whether VAT applies to private-hire companies outside London, which it has argued would level the playing field across the UK.
Continue reading...Much of the security is on the passenger side of the terminal, Geoff Askew says, not on the tarmac
Australia’s smaller and regional airports are rife with security vulnerabilities, industry insiders have warned, after the dramatic citizen’s arrest of a teenager who allegedly boarded a Jetstar flight with a shotgun and ammunition.
Police charged a 17-year-old Victorian boy with a range of offences, including unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, orchestrating a bomb hoax and possessing a firearm.
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Continue reading...Lord Hendy says important changes are happening but they follow ‘six years of torpor’
Passengers may lose patience with the government before it can make the changes needed to fix the railway, the rail minister, Lord Hendy, admitted, as he promised that action was coming after “years of torpor”.
The government is midway through a consultation on plans for a reformed, integrated Great British Railways (GBR), with legislation to enact it coming later in 2025, Hendy said.
Continue reading...Scathing committee report lambasts DfT and HS2 for failing to work together effectively
HS2 has become “a casebook example of how not to run a major project”, according to the latest scathing report on the high-speed rail line from MPs on the public accounts committee (PAC).
The PAC lambasted the Department for Transport (DfT) and HS2 Ltd for failing to work together effectively, and told them not to waste the opportunity to get a grip on costs during the project’s latest “reset”.
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