Let’s not be hypocritical here; like most Londoners who go on holiday, take weekend breaks, and travel for work, I use Heathrow several times a year. But not when I can possibly avoid it, though. I vastly prefer Eurostar for meetings in Brussels and Paris, and as I live only a bus ride from Euston, […]
Posts under ‘Transport’
Railways are too important to run on greed
Aug 21st, 2012 by James Bloodworth.In the novel Catch 22, one of the central characters is an entrepreneurial war profiteer by the name of Milo Minderbinder. Caught swindling his fellow countrymen, Milo likes to evoke the “historic right of free men to pay as much as they have to for the things they need in order to survive”. When Milo’s profiteering […]
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Rebuilding Rail: a blueprint for rail industry reform
Jul 26th, 2012 by Mick Whelan.The Rebuilding Rail report was commissioned by rail unions ASLEF, RMT, TSSA and UNITE in order to examine how a better structure for the railway could be created in order to deliver better value for taxpayers or passengers. It calls for a complete overhaul of our fragmented, franchised network, putting rail back into the hands […]
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Staff at Virgin Trains deserve respect
Jul 20th, 2012 by Manuel Cortes.This morning, talks between TSSA and Virgin Trains broke down after Virgin Trains refused to commit to observing their own procedures when addressing concerns regarding staff sickness, capability or discipline. Virgin Trains management, including Patrick McGrath, HR Director, read a pre-prepared statement and then left. The message that they gave us was:
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How not to run a railway
Apr 14th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.One of the areas where Labour should be setting out its vision, which everyone is crying out for, and where Labour would attract huge popularity, is by reasserting the role of an activist State in areas where the market has run amok, is out of control, or has massively failed. The railways would be a […]
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Introducing TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes
Jan 20th, 2012 by Union News.UnionNews speaks to newly-elected general secretary of the TSSA, Manuel Cortes, on campaigning with community groups, public transport lobby organisations and commuters against unjust rail fare increases, and how the TSSA is helping to build alliances to resist Coalition austerity cuts. Manuel Cortes was elected unopposed having been Assistant General Secretary for seven years.
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The £32bn Great Train Robbery
Jan 18th, 2012 by Ben Mitchell.The lure of high speed rail travel has proven too much for ministers to resist. Seduced by the chance to finally emulate its European neighbours, Britain will have its very own TGV in the not so near future. In a 2006 major review of Britain’s transport needs, the former head of British Airways, Sir Rod […]
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It is time to end arms sales to Israel
Aug 5th, 2011 by Darrell Goodliffe.Israel’s reaction to rocket’s fired from the Gaza Strip has been, as is usual, totally disproportionate and counter-productive. Unfortunately, the Israeli state seems to imagine itself totally above international law and reproach, and the silence of it’s Western allies means that, to all intents and purposes, it is. Firing rockets at Israeli towns is unacceptable […]
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Bombardier redundancies: does anybody care about Derby?
Jul 6th, 2011 by David Osler.Thanks to my job as a business journalist, I can reel off facts and figures on topics from projected GDP growth in the Russian Federation to the outlook for tanker chartering rates. But I couldn’t tell you much about what they do in Derby these days. There’s no reason why I should know that, of course. […]
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Tax Payers Alliance predict Resurrection
May 20th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Speed cameras are pretty topical at the moment but, no, this is not a piece about Chris Huhne. Right-wing “astroturf” pressure group, the Tax Payers Alliance, in a populist swipe at speed cameras, have published “research” with an implication they seem to have overlooked. The “research” predicts that, without speed cameras, road deaths would have been […]
