‘Super Express’ trains for South West

The Government has announced that an order has been placed for new trains to serve the Great Western Main Line. It has selected a preferred bidder, Agility Trains, for the order worth seven and a half billion pounds. Agility Trains, a consortium of Barclays Bank, Hitachi and John Laing, will build a fleet of new ‘Super Express’ trains to operate between London Paddington, Bristol and South Wales. The new trains will enter service in 2015 and will replace the existing high speed trains on these routes, which have been operating for over thirty years. A new major maintenance depot will be established in the Greater Bristol area to service the new fleet. The new trains will be delivered in three power variants (electric, diesel and bi-mode); will operate at two hundred kilometers per hour and have six hundred and forty-nine seats.

New ‘bus rapid transit’ route for Bristol?

Plans for a new ‘Bus Rapid Transit’ route for Bristol have been jointly approved by the city council and by North Somerset council. The new route, which will be ‘vehicle-free’, will link Bristol city centre (including Temple Meads railway station) with the existing Long Ashton park-and-ride site. Ten per cent of the total cost of the scheme, which is estimated to be approximately forty-eight million pounds, will come from locally-generated funds – it is hoped that the remainder of the cost will be met by the Government. Construction of the new route could commence in 2011, if the councils receive the necessary financial support from the Government.

Swindon real time information for local buses

The first phase of the ‘Nextbus Swindon’ real-time passenger information system has been completed – vehicle tracking equipment has been installed on ninety buses operated in the town by Thamesdown Transport and real-time passenger information display screens are now operating at fifty locations.

Cycling cash for Exeter

The Department for Transport has awarded seven hundred and sixty-two thousand pounds to Exeter, a ‘cycle demonstration town’, to finance the completion of a number of cycle routes in the city.

People (1)

Tom Joyner, the acting performance director of First Great Western, has been appointed as the operations director of First Capital Connect from 1 March 2009.

People (2)

Colin Knight, the head of transport operations at Bristol city council, has been appointed as the head of highway services at Coventry city council, commencing in late April.

And finally,

Lord Snape of Wednesbury has been appointed as the chairman of the Bus Appeals Body, following the death of Lord Hogg of Cumbernauld on 5 November 2008. Lord Snape opened a speech on the Local Transport Bill in the House of Lords on 18 November 2008 (prior to his appointment as the chairman of the Bus Appeals Body) with the following declaration:-

'I am employed as a consultant to FirstGroup plc. I am also a declarable shareholder in the National Express Group'

The constitution of the Bus Appeals Body states that it should consist of three members - one bus company representative nominated by the Confederation of Passenger Transport UK, one passenger representative nominated by Bus Users UK and an independent chairman.