Category Archives: Transport

Fund to hand out £4.7bn from axed HS2 northern section to smaller projects

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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.

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‘It’s a net zero cargo solution’: could Victoria become home to an airship renaissance?

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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.

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Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka steps down after nearly four years in top role

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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.

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‘Take the Windrush, then change on to the Suffragette’: onboard the renamed London Overground lines causing controversy

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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.

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London Overground: new names and colours for six lines revealed

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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.

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Ulez fines scandal: Italian police ‘illegally accessed’ thousands of EU drivers’ data

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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.

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Make used electric cars cheaper and tackle battery fears, peers tell ministers

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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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Australia to spend $80m on business case for Sydney-Newcastle high speed rail

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The announcement of a business case budget is the latest development in the Albanese government’s slow moving high speed rail project

The Albanese government will spend $80m developing a business case for the Sydney-to-Newcastle stretch of its east coast high speed rail line, as the decades-long project inches further forward.

The transport minister, Catherine King, said the allocation of $78.8m was part of Labor’s $500m election commitment to the early stages of high speed rail, with the initial Sydney-Newcastle leg representing a “crucial waypoint” on the project.

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Australian air fares halved when three carriers rather than one fly route, data reveals

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Assistant competition minister Andrew Leigh says it is often cheaper to fly from Darwin to Singapore than to Sydney as Labor targets monopolies

Ticket prices are halved when three airlines fly a route compared with a monopoly situation and fares fall further as more rivals are added, according to new findings designed to inform Australia’s competition and merger laws.

The assistant competition minister, Andrew Leigh, will tell a Melbourne audience on Tuesday there are worrying signs that competition intensity has weakened over recent decades, with evidence of increased market concentration and profit markups in several industries.

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Deadliest six months on Australian roads since 2010 leaves industry demanding answers

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Motoring association criticises data quality and say Australia has ‘no credible plan’ to reduce incidents as nation records 677 deaths since July 2023

The second half of 2023 was the deadliest six months on Australian roads since 2010, but there is “no credible plan” to make roads safer, the industry claims, as it pleads for better data to understand what is causing the surge in fatal crashes.

In the three months to September 2023, there were 341 road deaths nationally. The following quarter’s figures decreased only slightly from that, with a further 336 deaths recorded to the end of December. The total 677 road deaths in the final six months of 2023 was the largest half-yearly road toll since the first half of 2010, when 688 people died on roads across Australia.

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Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens ‘wrongly fined for driving in London Ulez’

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Exclusive: EU states accuse TfL of huge data breach over clean air zone penalties, with many given to compliant vehicles

Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens were wrongly fined for driving in London’s Ulez clean air zone, according to European governments, in what has been described as “possibly one of the largest data breaches in EU history”.

The Guardian can reveal Transport for London (TfL) has been accused by five EU countries of illegally obtaining the names and addresses of their citizens in order to issue the fines, with more than 320,000 penalties, some totalling thousands of euros, sent out since 2021.

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‘It was so worrying’: EU motorist tells of £11,000 run-in with London Ulez rules

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Driver was unaware he had to register French hire car with TfL’s collection agent even though it was emissions compliant

Christian Ducarre received three fines totalling nearly £11,000 after driving his French hire car to London to attend his son’s wedding. The car, which was fully compliant with ultra-low emission zone emissions rules, was mistakenly classed as a heavy goods vehicle and deemed to be in breach of the separate low emissions zone (Lez) and well as Ulez. Lez covers lorries, vans, buses and coaches, and fines are between £500 and £2,000 a day depending on the vehicle’s weight.

“I had checked that the car’s emissions standard was Euro 06 and so was not liable for the Ulez charge,” he said.

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Tourists heading to Europe could face 14-hour queues at Dover from October

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New EU entry-exit system could lead to gridlocked roads if scheme goes ahead as planned, MPs hear

Tourists heading to Europe could face waits of up to 14 hours at border controls under a scheme to be launched in October, MPs have been told.

The Port of Dover and the surrounding area could face significant disruption when the EU entry/exit system is introduced unless measures are taken to prevent delays, parliament’s European scrutiny committee has heard.

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‘It’s taken a toll’: burnout drives auction of vintage Holdens at Australian museum

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Seven classic cars and naming rights of country’s longest-running museum of the iconic vehicle up for grabs as owners of 30 years say they need a break

The National Holden motor museum will put its name and its classic cars up for auction after failing to find a buyer to take it over.

The closures marks the end of longest, continously running, single-maker motor museum in Australia and the end of a local fixture in the regional Victorian town of Echuca.

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Storm Isha live: travel chaos across UK with rail cancellations in Scotland after ‘wild night’

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Disruption expected on Monday as cancellations and delays issued for rail, sea and air with heavy rain and high winds forecast

Train services in Scotland are expected to be suspended until around noon after “a wild night”, Network Rail says.

The railway has recovered quickly this morning following Storm Isha with trees and debris cleared across routes in England and Wales, and route proving trains reporting lines clear.

Passenger and freight services have restarted and a good service is expected in most areas. Passengers should still check before they head out for the latest travel news on trains operators’ websites.

Between 3.30pm on Sunday, 21st January and 2am on Monday, 22nd January, officers dealt with over 1,300 calls from the public, approximately 600 of these related to the storm.

“There is also a continued risk of significant debris on the road network as wind speeds remain high throughout Monday.

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Tornado warning issued as 90mph Storm Isha hits UK

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Forecasters warn of life-threatening gusts in coastal areas as weather causes travel disruption across country

A tornado warning has been issued across parts of Britain as Storm Isha takes hold, with potentially life-threatening gusts and travel disruption expected into Monday.

A “tornado watch” zone was issued for Northern Ireland as well as parts of Scotland and northern England by the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro) on Sunday afternoon. That means a “strong tornado” is possible in those regions.

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‘Mini-city’: Meet the 30,000 workers who power Australia’s busiest airport every day

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Hidden from travellers, Sydney’s airport workers operate intricate networks of conveyor belts, birdwatch with shotguns and sniff out contraband

Flying over the harbour and into Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, the dazzling view of blue ocean lapping at the city’s heart makes the claustrophobia of a window seat tolerable.

For the 100,000-odd travellers who must endure some hectic combination of snaking queues, overpriced cafes, overweight bags and violated personal space before either arriving into or departing the city each day, the fleeting vista of a glistening Sydney stands out.

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TFL considering installing fake steering wheels at front of DLR trains

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Sadiq Khan says cardboard steering wheels could bring to life driverless train experience for children

It is already the most in-demand spot on the London transport network, but plans to install stickers and cardboard steering wheels in driverless Docklands Light Railway (DLR) trains could intensify the scramble for its front seats.

London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said the trains, in which tens of thousands of Londoners have sat pretending to be the driver, could now include a steering wheel and stickers mimicking control panels to make the experience more realistic.

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Have Australian drivers finally charged into electric vehicles?

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EV sales are booming and longtime favourite makes and models are being ignored in favour of Tesla and BYD

Newcomer brands and luxury marques are dominating booming electric car sales as mainstream players struggle to match the pace of a fast-evolving EV market.

The top three selling electric vehicles in Australia in 2023 were from Tesla and BYD, between them accounting for two-thirds of the 87,217 electric cars sold, according to figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

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Bonza owners being chased in court for US$30m after leased planes repossessed in Canada

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777 Partners, which launched Australian budget carrier in early 2023, had leased four planes for Flair Airlines in Canada, UK court documents show

The private investment firm poised to take over Everton football club and which owns airlines in Canada and Australia is being chased for almost US$30m (A$44.7m) in unpaid aircraft leasing fees and damages.

777 Partners is facing legal action in the UK from three aircraft lessors over unpaid fees and damages related to four aircraft that were leased to Flair Airlines, the Canadian low-cost carrier that 777 partly owns.

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