Board of directors is composed of members of the existing National Express East Anglia team, Dutch rail professionals and some fresh faces. Abellio has announced that Ruud Haket will head the new Greater Anglia franchise which starts operating February 5. Haket lead the Dutch group’s successful bid for the 29-month contract. Haket has been bid...
Council firm’s hybrid bus fleets lead to significant fuel savings. Council-owned bus operator Lothian Buses has revealed that its recently launched fleet of hybrid vehicles are achieving significant fuel savings. Lothian introduced 14 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400H hybrids and the vehicles are already achieving fuel savings in the region of 59% when compared to the...
Travel Test begins a global tour with a series of articles by Nigel Tarrant, managing director of Bestchart, providers of mystery traveller services. Public transport in Dubai has come on in leaps and bounds since I first visited back in 2006. Car is king in Dubai and with petrol around 16p a litre it is...
‘Track and Train’ scheme to provide 100 graduates with 18 months of all-round industry experience. More than 25 companies across the rail sector have joined together for the first time to help up to 100 graduates get their careers on track by launching a new cross-industry, paid internship scheme. The scheme, ‘Track and Train’, will...
FirstGroup’s UK bus division today launched ‘Better Journeys for Life’, a new brand promise which sets out the group’s aims and plans, which will involve working more closely with all stakeholders including customers, staff and external partners. The group says that its networks are the life blood of local communities up and down the country,...
Train operators have welcomed the decision by transport secretary Justine Greening, to approve plans to invest £32bn in what is set to become the world’s fastest conventional railway – High Speed 2. Train operators have hailed the government’s decision to approve plans for High Speed 2, the 250mph north-south railway line. “HS2 is a vote...
Our man in Westminster imagines what Justine Greening, secretary of state for transport, really thinks about High Speed 2. On reflection, I shouldn’t really be surprised, but the thing that strikes me most about transport is that everybody – and I mean everybody – has an opinion about it. You only have to watch the...
In the first of a new series of articles on rail fares, Andrew Meaney, Managing Consultant at Oxera, offers his thoughts on how the government should approach its forthcoming Fares Review. Arguably, rail fares policy is currently a useful lever at the government’s disposal for rebalancing funding between the taxpayer and the passenger. However, there...
Former Go North East boss believes Competition Commission’s inquiry has illustrated the contradictory expectations placed on bus operators. On December 31, Peter Huntley stepped down as managing director of Go North East, one of the bus company’s accused by the Competition Commission of going about its business in ways that adversely affect competition. Now a...
India’s Ashok Leyland takes majority stake in Optare while Arriva enters into pan-European ‘co-operation agreement’ with China’s King Long. Two deals announced this week have paved the way for Indian and Chinese manufacturers to gain a stronger foothold in Europe’s bus manufacturing market. India’s Ashok Leyland has increased its shareholding in Optare to 75.1%, allowing...
Zehra Chudry asked Michael Leach, CEO of ITSO, about the evolving role of the national interoperable ticketing standard. So Michael, you’ve been CEO at ITSO for nearly two years now, how have things changed in that time? Michael Leach: I think there have been some really big changes. I think the most fundamental one is...
New Thameslink contract will subsume Southern by July 2017. The Department for Transport this week invited expressions of interest for the operation of three UK rail franchises that will reshape the rail map. The new Thameslink, Essex Thameside and Great Western contracts are the first of a new generation of franchise that will see train...
Huntley: CC sexed up ‘evidence of collusion’