First Group wins bid to replace Virgin on West Coast mainline August 14, 2019 The government announced today that First Trenitalia had been appointed to run the West Coast mainline from December 2019 to 2031. First Group and Italian firm Trenitalia will replace Virgin on the line that runs from London Euston to Glasgow via Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. The First-Trenitalia consortium saw off a rival bid from a [...]
Travel chaos averted as union calls off Heathrow strike August 14, 2019 Union Unite has called of a strike at Heathrow which threatened to put a spanner in the works for thousands of travellers later this month. The strike, which was meant to happen on 23 and 24 August has been called off to give more than 4,000 union members the chance to consider a new offer [...]
Government sets out scope for probe into National Grid outage August 14, 2019 The government has laid out its plans to probe National Grid over a blackout which left almost 1m homes without power and closed two major train stations in London last week. The Energy Emergencies Executive Committee will look into whether National Grid, which runs most of Britain’s power network, took the right steps after the [...]
Balfour Beatty shares rocket after profit jump August 14, 2019 Shares in construction giant Balfour Beatty have surged 11.8 per cent this morning after its results showed pre-tax profit grew by 26 per cent in the first half of 2019 compared to a year earlier. The UK-based company chalked up the strong results to its “Build to Last” programme which vies for lower-risk contracts amid [...]
Full-fibre broadband will power our next industrial revolution August 14, 2019 On the campaign trail, Boris Johnson made a bold pledge to deliver full-fibre digital connections to every home in the land. As the new government gets down to work, there is no time to waste in turning that rhetoric into reality. The UK led the way in the first industrial revolution, and should do the [...]
Rail fares have risen twice as fast as wages over past decade, says union August 14, 2019 Rail fares have risen twice as fast as wages in the past decade, new analysis by the TUC trade union has found. The figures show that rail fares, which are pegged to the Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation measure, have risen by 46 per cent since 2009, while nominal weekly earnings have only grown by [...]
Rolls-Royce: Engine issues still in focus after ‘storm of steel and iron’ falls from plane August 14, 2019 On a sunny, 30C-degree afternoon in Fiumicino, near Rome, residents of the airport town thought they were experiencing a sudden hail storm. But when witness Paola Di Lazzaro looked outside, she saw “a storm of steel and iron,” she told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero. Hundreds of shards of incandescent metal were falling down to earth [...]
Aston Martin in hedge funds’ cross hairs as short sellers target its debt August 13, 2019 Hedge funds have taken record short positions in Aston Martin’s debt and equity, betting that the firm’s recent stock market struggles are far from over. The car maker has suffered a 73 per cent decline in shares since its October float. The decline has slashed more than £3bn from its market value. As a result, [...]
Norwegian Air cuts routes to US from Ireland as Boeing 737 Max grounding bites August 13, 2019 Budget airline Norwegian Air will stop flights between Ireland and the US in September, after its finances were hit by the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max. It said: “We have concluded these routes are no longer commercially viable.” Norwegian has struggled to make a profit in recent months, and said in July the grounding [...]
Rival Silvertown Tunnel bidder launches legal action against TfL August 13, 2019 A rival bidder for the proposed Silvertown Tunnel has launched legal action against Transport for London (TfL), preventing it from signing the £1bn contract. TfL awarded the contract to build and design the tunnel in East London to Riverlinx, a consortium that includes Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI), Cintra and Macquarie Capital. Read more: TfL awards [...]