City Matters: St Jude’s storm was a stark reminder why we need more transport investment November 3, 2013 ONE week on from the biggest storm London has seen in nearly thirty years, and the capital’s railways are back on track. The travel chaos was an uncomfortable reminder of how crucial the smooth running of London’s transport is to Londoners’ ability to go about their business. The two largest transport projects currently on the [...]
Labour makes new push for higher wages November 4, 2013 LABOUR leader Ed Miliband has pledged to offer tax breaks of up to £1,000 per worker for companies that move low-paid staff onto the living wage. Miliband said the scheme would cut poverty while saving money on benefit payments – but the Conservatives and some business groups said the plan was impractical. More than 400 [...]
Cheaper train tickets planned for part-timers September 16, 2013 PART-TIME workers will soon be able to save money with flexible season tickets for their train journeys, under plans announced by rail minister Norman Baker yesterday. The Department for Transport will next year pilot the scheme on a London commuter route, which will offer cheaper season tickets for workers who only commute a few days [...]
Boris Bikes set to get harder to find as staff stage two-day strike August 11, 2013 BORIS Bike workers last night began a 48-hour strike over pay and conditions, in a move that is set to reduce the number of cycles available on London’s streets. Around 150 staff have refused to work until 9pm tomorrow, meaning there will be fewer drivers to move bikes to areas with high demand. “Staff running [...]
Forget high speed rail. Driverless cars will revolutionise transport October 31, 2013 SOMETHING very exciting is about to happen in Milton Keynes, of all places. Starting in 18 months’ time, the Buckinghamshire town will host the first proper UK test of driverless cars. The trial will be modest by the standards of those happening elsewhere in the world – the hundred self-driving pods will use special lanes [...]
Forget high speed rail. Driverless cars will revolutionise transport October 29, 2013 SOMETHING very exciting is about to happen in Milton Keynes, of all places. Starting in 18 months’ time, the Buckinghamshire town will host the first proper UK test of driverless cars. The trial will be modest by the standards of those happening elsewhere in the world – the hundred self-driving pods will use special lanes [...]
Train operators say traffic rising in tandem with UK jobs market August 5, 2013 BRITAIN’S railways carried 344.4m passengers in the three months to the end of June, up five per cent on last year – and train operators credited some of the rise to an uptick in the jobs market. Trains in London and the south east of England took 235.8m people in the quarter, a rise of [...]
Letters to the editor – 29/08 – Jobless youth, HS2 failings, Best of Twitter August 28, 2013 Jobless youth [Re: Why far too many young people still struggle to find work after education, Friday] Lottie Dexter makes for good reading, but I disagree with her conclusions. Enforced apprenticeships will not save Britain’s young – they are the hallmark of a corporatist industrial policy. We live in an age of innovation: machines or even [...]
Battle lines drawn over HS2 rail link September 10, 2013 New report claims line will boost UK’s economy by £15bn …but critics remain unconvinced MINISTERS will today launch a fightback in support of the High Speed 2 (HS2) railway project – as a government-commissioned KPMG report claims the project would boost the UK economy by £15bn a year. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin will use a major [...]
Fall in the number of London workers that commute by car February 13, 2013 THE NUMBER of Londoners that drive to work has dropped by over seven per cent since the start of the millenium, according to Census data released yesterday. Over 1.1m residents in the capital used to drive a car or van to work according to the 2001 Census – yet the figure is now closer to [...]