Category Archives: Road transport

Papua New Guinea’s PM given a Bentley bought for Apec summit

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All 111 members of parliament will get vehicles from the Apec fleet, but the fate of 40 Maseratis is not yet known

Papua New Guinea’s prime minister will receive one of the Bentley cars controversially purchased by the government at taxpayers’ expense for the 2018 Apec summit, officials have confirmed.

James Marape became PM in May with promises to crack down on corruption. The finance secretary, Ken Ngangan, has told the Post Courier newspaper that all 111 members of parliament will get vehicles from the Apec fleet for their electoral duties, though no one apart from the PM will receive a Maserati or Bentleys.

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Driven to despair: road toll charges take centre stage in Norway vote

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Gilets jaunes-style movement has threatened to bring down national government

Regional elections in Norway on Monday are being billed as a referendum on the country’s environmental policies, with the country split over road toll rises that have already threatened to bring down the national government.

A sharp increase in motorway toll and congestion charges in recent years has helped fuel a political movement that is proving a threat to mainstream parties in a number of major cities.

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‘Just wanted to drive a little’: eight-year-old German boy takes car for 87mph spin

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Child reaches high speeds during night-time motorway adventure before pulling over and putting his hazard lights on

An eight-year-old boy has been found safe after taking his parents’ car for an 87mph (140km/h) night-time spin down a motorway in Germany.

He tearfully told police he “just wanted to drive a little bit”.

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MPs call for tougher penalties on drivers using mobile phones

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Committee says ban on hands-free use should be considered amid rise in road deaths

Tougher restrictions on drivers using mobile phones, including extending the ban to hands-free devices, should be considered, MPs have said.

The transport select committee said using any type of mobile phone while driving had potentially catastrophic consequences. The MPs called for more severe penalties “commensurate with the risks”, as road deaths linked to phone use have risen steadily over the past decade.

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Man killed while riding e-scooter on French motorway

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Rider was reportedly in the fast lane when he was hit from behind by a motorbike

A 30-year-old man has been killed after being hit by a motorbike while riding his e-scooter on a French motorway.

It is the third death linked to the increasingly popular mode of transport in the Paris region in four months, and has sparked further safety concerns and renewed calls for their regulation.

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UK energy watchdog demands answers after major power cut

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Outage caused travel chaos and cut electricity to almost 1m people in England and Wales

The energy watchdog, Ofgem, is demanding answers from the National Grid after a power cut left people stuck in trains for up to nine hours and cut electricity to almost 1 million people in England and Wales.

The biggest power outage in a decade caused widespread disruption on the rail network during the evening rush hour on Friday. Traffic light systems stopped working, causing gridlock in some areas, and Newcastle airport was left in darkness. Power had been restored to 900,000 customers by Saturday, but the rail network was struggling to get services back to normal.

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Transport chaos across England and Wales after major power cuts

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Failure on National Grid network affects train services and road users

Large parts of England and Wales have been left without electricity following a major power cut, electricity network operators have said, with a serious impact reported on rail and road services, including city traffic lights.

Passengers were shut out of some of the country’s busiest train stations during the Friday evening rush hour, while hundreds of thousands of homes were left without electricity after what the National Grid described as a problem with two generators.

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Residents attack lack of organisation after crash at Stevenage car meet

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‘We’re not boy racers,’ says organiser after 17 injured, two seriously, after spectators were hit

Local people and witnesses to a crash at a car meet in Stevenage that left 17 people injured have said the event was not organised or policed properly.

For 17 years, drivers of modified cars have gathered in the Hertfordshire town to parade their vehicles for fellow enthusiasts. Thursday’s event, which was raising money for a charity supporting bereaved parents, turned to disaster when some of the spectators watching from the side of the road were hit following the crash between a Nissan 350Z and a Toyota GT86.

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Police in Brazil shut down factory making fake Ferraris and Lamborghinis

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Father and son accused of offering the cars on social media for $45,000 to $60,000 – a fraction of the price of the real thing

Police in Brazil say they’ve shut down a clandestine factory that was producing fake Ferraris and sham Lamborghinis.

A father and son who owned the workshop in the southern state of Santa Catarina have been arrested on industrial property charges.

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The Innisfil experiment: the town that replaced public transit with Uber

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Ridership is high and there’s plenty of work for drivers, but success has come at a cost to this Ontario town

Photographs by Cole Burston

When Daniel Arrega, 19, heads to work at a mall in Innisfil, he has few options for his commute. Walking along the highway would take nearly three hours. A taxi is faster but expensive.

So he takes the town’s public transit: Uber.

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Stonehenge £2bn road tunnel project funding uncertain, MPs warn

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Public accounts committee says plan at mercy of spending review delayed by Brexit

A £2bn project to open a road tunnel beneath the Stonehenge world heritage site in 2026 is being put at risk by uncertainty over how it will be financed, MPs have warned.

Ministers have claimed the scheme is affordable, deliverable and will improve Stonehenge by taking the sight and sound of lorries and cars away from the ancient monument and reducing traffic congestion.

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‘It’s stifling at home’: why free metro travel offers a lifeline for Delhi’s women

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City authorities say positive discrimination will make journeys safer and help low-income families

As a politics student, Sonakshi Dogra has given the bold new plan by the Delhi government to let all women ride free on the metro and buses a thorough going-over. “It’s ridiculous. Why favour women this way? What about male students and working men? Women can’t ask for gender equality and then support inequality on public transport,” she said firmly.

Dogra was about to enter Ashram metro station with three male friends, also students at the same university. They spend about 4,000 rupees (£45) each a month on transport.

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Seven dead in New Hampshire crash involving ex-US Marines biker club

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  • Truck seen in flames after accident near Randolph
  • Witness: ‘It was so devastating to see the bodies on the road’

Motorcyclists with a club comprised of ex-US Marines collided with a pickup truck on a rural highway in New Hampshire on Friday, killing seven and leaving the biker community reeling.

Related: Nine people die in Hawaii plane crash

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‘Like the mafia’: Bangkok’s motorbike taxi drivers locked in deadly turf war

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Tensions between rival moto gangs in the Thai capital escalated after the arrival of ride-hailing apps. Now two men are dead

On Thursday morning on Soi Udomsuk, a market-flanked road in east-central Bangkok, nine police officers on plastic chairs are keeping watch.

The officers, their peaked brown hats neatly lined up on trestle tables, are on the lookout for any signs of trouble between rival motorbike taxi gangs after carnage erupted in this pocket of the city on Saturday when a brutal fight broke out between two groups of drivers.

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Teenagers held over homophobic attack on two women on London bus

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Lesbian couple assaulted by group of young males blame rise of rightwing populism for growth in hate crime

The two women left needing hospital treatment after they were attacked on a bus in a homophobic assault have blamed a rise in rightwing populism for growing hate crime and called on people to stand up for each other.

Melania Geymonat, 28, and her girlfriend, Chris, 29, defiantly announced they would not be intimidated into hiding their sexuality, days after they said they were attacked by several young men when they refused to kiss upon demand.

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Eiffel Tower revamp to turn roads into garden in heart of Paris

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€72m makeover will create mile-long stretch of pools, fountains and parks

A garden stretches for a mile, free of cars with one of the world’s most recognisable monuments at its centre. Crossing the river on a tree-lined and lawned bridge, the roar of traffic has been replaced by the sound of water from fountains.

Such is the vision for the Eiffel Tower, which is at the centre of a major makeover project to transform one of Paris’s most visited districts.

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Police seize 120 sports cars during Eurorally ‘race’ through Germany

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Porsches and Lamborghinis spotted doing high speeds on unrestricted part of autobahn

German police have seized 120 sports cars that were taking part in a suspected road race across Europe.

Cars including Porsches, Lamborghinis and Audis were stopped on Thursday on the A20 east of Wismar, in north-east Germany, on a stretch of the autobahn without speed restrictions.

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Sajid Javid proposes legal protection for police who crash cars

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Police drivers would be held to different driving standards to public when in road chases

Police drivers will be held to different standards to the public if they are involved in a car crash while chasing a suspected criminal under changes put forward by the home secretary, Sajid Javid.

Officers are currently held to the same standards as members of the public when involved in a crash during a pursuit and the Home Office argues this overlooks the training they receive.

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‘Concreteberg’ weighing 105 tonnes found in London sewer

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Authorities say 100-metre-long mass is the result of concrete being poured down drain

People pouring concrete into sewers has led to a “concreteberg” forming in central London that weighs 105 tonnes, as heavy as a blue whale.

The 100-metre-long mass is blocking three Victorian-era sewers in the heart of the capital. Thames Water’s operations manager, Alex Saunders, said it was the largest mass of concrete the company had seen, and could take two months to remove at a cost of at least several hundred thousand pounds.

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