Serco awarded extension to run Boris Bikes January 9, 2014 SERCO, the beleaguered outsourcing firm under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), yesterday said it has won a £38m two-year contract extension with Transport for London (TfL) to manage and operate the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme. The original contract to design, build and operate the service – commonly known as Boris Bikes, named after [...]
Why geography matters when selecting an MBA course January 8, 2014 Business has gone global and business schools have followed, with most now claiming to offer international reach IN GREATER numbers, business school applicants are looking beyond the UK and US to study their Masters of Business Administration (MBA). QS Top MBA research has found that, while the UK and US remain the most popular study [...]
Gatwick says sorry for chaos after biblical Christmas floods January 7, 2014 GATWICK has made a fresh apology to passengers left stranded on Christmas Eve, after it emerged that the airport’s chief executive was on holiday in Newcastle as staff struggled to find enough bus drivers to move passengers. Chief executive Stewart Wingate said the airport had just half an hour’s warning of the “biblical” flooding that [...]
Letters to the Editor – 08/01 – France failing, Congestion charge, Best of Twitter January 7, 2014 France failing [Re: France’s failed socialist experiment is turning into a tragedy, yesterday] The impending triple-dip recession in France should be the ultimate humiliation for Labour’s Ed Miliband and Ed Balls. French President Francois Hollande’s strategy seems to have delivered precisely what Labour predicted would happen in the UK as a result of austerity. That’s [...]
Love it or hate it: Nissan launches new London taxi January 6, 2014 NISSAN is hoping to rise through the ranks of London’s taxi market when it starts selling its own spin on the Hackney carriage this year. The car maker has redesigned its NV200 model to look more like the traditional city cab after feedback from the mayor’s office and Transport for London, which tightly regulates the [...]
Business anger at plans to hike congestion levy January 6, 2014 LONDON’S congestion charge could rise from £10 a day to £11.50, under plans revealed yesterday by Transport for London that were criticised by hauliers and some business groups. The levy on motorists in central London has already doubled from £5 a day when it was launched in 2003, though TfL said the charges have been [...]
Floats are stacking up on Aim as pallet maker RM2 makes debut January 6, 2014 PALLET manufacturer RM2 joined the junior stock market yesterday after raising £137.2m to finance its expansion plans. The IPO is one of the biggest floats of the past year on the Alternative Investment Market. RM2 designs, makes and supplies pallets for transporting goods, using materials it claims are much stronger than the traditional wooden designs. [...]
Solve the capital’s hidden transport crisis by bridging the Thames Chasm January 6, 2014 SOMETIMES a crisis doesn’t seem like a crisis because it is the status quo and people just take it for granted. For London, a case in point is the Thames Chasm – the acute shortage of road crossings of the River Thames east of Tower Bridge. The inability to get across the East Thames is [...]
TfL is asking for views on upping the congestion charge January 6, 2014 Transport for London (TfL) has hatched a new plan to raise funds, announcing today that it'd like Londoners' views on some changes to the congestion charge – which it's intending to increase. The daily charge, which has been £10 since 2011, will be upped to £11.50 with the new proposals. The increase will raise around [...]
The year in preview: Our in-depth guide January 5, 2014 City A.M.’s journalists take a wide-ranging look at what 2014 has in store for the world of finance and business BANKINGRestoring faith means costly overhaulsA CAUTIOUS optimism pervades the British and European banking system at the start of 2014. The incoming economic recovery is at last improving customers’ creditworthiness, while the hard work running down [...]