Weekly Transport Update 7

• WA dropped by WA Shearings. As mentioned in last week's Weekly Transport Update, Denis Wormwell has joined WA Shearings as the company's Chief Executive. No sooner had the appointment been made than further changes to the company were unveiled this week, which will see the WA element of the name dropped in favour of just Shearings. For many years Wallace Arnold was the Yorkshire-based rival of Shearings. By calling the entire company Shearings it places more emphasis on Shearings as a complete holiday provider rather than a coach business. The firm's new tag line will be "more than you expected".
• Bolton fraudsters caught. British Transport Police officers worked with First's inspectors to check tickets on bus services operating in the Bolton area last Friday and Saturday night, in an attempt to catch fraudsters. 9 people aged between 17 and 40 were arrested on suspicion of fraud. 4 people were held on suspicion of immigration offences.
• 25 years of Futura. Bova's Futura coach is celebrating is 25th birthday since it was first built on 3 September 1982. Very few Bova-bodied coaches operate in the LEYTR area - Loveden operate one on school services and Rowell of Prudoe operate one on their National Express 663 diagram to Butlins during the summer months.
• Seven renewable fuels. Volvo's B9TL chassis has been modified to operate using seven different types of renewable fuels +/or combination of fuels including biogas mixtures.
• Darwen pledges to save East Lancs. When coachbuilder East Lancs was placed into administration a few weeks ago, the Darwen group took over the operation of the firm, thus saving around 360 jobs. The new owners now promote investment in key areas.
• Toilet problems. Toilets are officially one of the most complained about aspects of public transport in the UK. Following a study by Fizzback, toilets in buses, coaches and trains accounted for more than 23% of all negative feedback. Other, lesser complaints include unhelpful staff (18%), service (17%), comfort (10%), cleanliness (9%) and little or no information given (7%).
• Stoke Multi-bus ticket launched. In conjunction with numerous local bus operators, Stoke-on-Trent city council is introducing a multi-bus ticket from October for unlimited travel on virtually all local bus services throughout North Staffordshire. The ticket is available daily at £4.50, weekly at £17.50 and monthly at £55.00. Participating operators are: First, D&G, Wardles, Scraggs, RML, Procters, Arriva Midlands and Bakerbus.
• Fun day out for flood victims. Those affected severely by flooding in South and East Yorkshire, which caused chaos in June, were treated to a day at the seaside by Doncaster-area coach brokerage, Demauris Associates, transporting 300 people to Scarborough. Coaches were supplied by EYMS, DBC Travel and Keats Travel.
• Lothian go solar-powered. Edinburgh-based bus operator Lothian Buses have installed 32 solar-powered on-street ticket machines at stops in Edinburgh city centre. It is hoped these machines will cut boarding times and pave the way from the city's tram project, due for completion on 2010.
• Birkenhead bus station re-vamp. Merseytravel has spent £1.4million on re-vamping Birkenhead Bus Station, including a new bus only lane to ease congestion and improved waiting facilities.
• Lothian's Airlink service improves. Since 2000 when Lothian Buses' re-launched their Airlink service between Edinburgh Princes Street-Edinburgh Airport, over £8million has been invested in vehicles by the company and this culminated last week with the completion of the latest £2million order for 10 new Scania OmniCity double deckers. For this year, passengers have risen by 5%, ahead of the Airport's growth.
• Bang! During the financial year ending 31 March 2007 there were 2,000 incidents of vehicles hitting bridges, 65 of which involved PCVs.
• Driver 'critical'. A 59yr old TWM driver is critically ill in hospital after he was crushed between two buses at Wolverhampton bus station last week.
• VOSA tweaked. VOSA is tweaking its image with the inclusion of the three triangle MOT sign.
• Minimum wage increased. The National Minimum Wage increases in October to £5.52 from £5.35 per hour. The 18-21yr old rate rises from £4.45 to £4.60 and the 16-17yr old rate goes up from £3.30 to £3.40.
• BDoY finals this weekend. Blackpool is once again the setting for the 2007 Bus Driver of the Year finals, which will see 126 entrants employed by operators including Arriva, First, Stagecoach, Metroline, Plymouth Citybus, Lothian Buses, Go-Ahead, Manchester Airport, National Express bus operating firms and Ipswich Buses.
• Cumbria rail crash verdic. The faulty points that caused the Grayrigg train derailment in Cumbria were not inspected because a maintenance worker went home early and his supervisor failed to notice that the points had not been checked, according to a report by Network Rail.An 84-year-old woman was killed and 22 people injured when the 1715 London to Glasgow Class 390 Virgin Pendolino careered off the track at 94mph at the Lambrigg points near Grayrigg on 23 February 2007. Three days later an interim investigation attributed the derailment to faulty points.
• Isle of Wight transport interchange given green light. Transport Minister Rosie Winterton has given the go-ahead for a £6.2m multi-modal interchange to be built at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The decision means passengers will be able to switch between bus, rail and hovercraft services in more comfortable, modern and secure surroundings that at present. The new interchange will have real-time information on local services plus a link to information about trains from Portsmouth, CCTV, improved heating, seating, and a new cafe. It will also be fully accessible for disabled people.
• Paisley 'Cowboys' days numbered. Strathclyde Partnership for Transport has reached agreement with local councils in the west of Scotland to provide bus wardens to enforce current bus regulations – a move that has the support of the traffic commissioner for Scotland. Uniformed enforcement officers are now being recruited by SPT for a pilot project to target 'cowboy bus operators' in Paisley town centre. Negotiations are also on-going with South Lanarkshire and Glasgow councils for similar operations in Hamilton and Glasgow city centre.
• Smart cctv at Sheffield. Midland Mainline has become the first train operating company to introduce a high-tech CCTV system designed to automatically detect suspicious activity.The technology, which is being trialled at Sheffield railway station, is part of a system designed by IT services company Atos Origin in collaboration with Verint, ADT, EMC, HP, 802 Global, Global Crossing and Object Video.Software continuously searches images for specific incidents and automatically alerts station staff to events, allowing them to respond to incidents more quickly and eliminating the need for a round-the-clock staffed monitoring centre.