Lord Adonis made the much-anticipated announcement of plans for a UK high speed rail link today. Detailed plans for the route between London and Birmingham have been published for consultation, along with proposals for a £30bn “Y” shaped network also taking in Manchester, the East Midlands, Sheffield and Leeds, and there is future work to [...]

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The news this morning that the Conservatives have rejected Lord Adonis’ offer of an early look at the High Speed Rail White Paper should worry supporters of high speed rail.

Filed under: Economics, Environment, Politics, Transport | 3 Comments »

Today’s PBR gave some positive signals on transport, with a distinctly green hue.  Unfortunately there wasn’t much detail, nor much new money, though there was a welcome financial boost for electric vehicles.

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The announcement yesterday that the operating arm of Tyne and Wear Metro is to be privatised was met with bitter disappointment by unions and community campaigners in the region and nationally.

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Just days after the East Coast rail service passed back into public hands, the Government has published plans for re-privatising the route, with the process getting underway next year.  More worrying still, the announcement suggests that c2c, one of the other routes operated by National Express, will be allowed to run its course and then re-let according [...]

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At midnight tonight the troubled East Coast Mainline will be taken back into public hands under a new, publicly owned company, after National Express failed to meet the terms of its £1.4 billion franchise agreement.
The Government says the line will be managed by the new East Coast body for the next two years, but unions [...]

Filed under: Transport | 5 Comments »

A quick hat-tip to Left Foot Forward for this piece on the massive fare rises for London public transport announced by Boris Johnson last week. The bus fare rises in particular mean that it will be the poorest who will feel the most severe impact of the change.  LFF will be investigating further this week, as I’m sure [...]

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Yesterday the government launched the UK Climate Projections, a major set of new scientific data that sets out how the UK’s climate is likely to change over the coming years. The headline messages of the projections are stark, showing a future of heatwaves, floods and storms.  They add yet more urgency to the need for governments to [...]

Filed under: Environment, Safety | Comments Off

Today over 200 trade unionists and green campaigners are gathering at Congress House for the TUC’s annual climate change conference.  They’ll be the first to get their hands on the new TUC publication Changing Work in a Changing Climate, which is the result of a major new piece of research into what adapting to climate [...]

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The verdict on what the budget has to offer on housing? £1bn of new money, around half for new building and half to support homeowners, is definitely a step in the right direction, although it falls short of the boldness needed to tackle the full extent of the housing crisis. Still, if the money is all [...]

Filed under: Budget 2009, Environment, Housing | 1 Comment »