French group Suez takes on west London’s waste with 25-year contract November 28, 2013 Suez Environnement subsidiary Sita UK is leading a consortium that has just signed a £760m, 25-year residual waste contract with the West London Waste Authority (WLWA). Over its duration, the contract is worth £1.4bn, and will see £244m invested into new infrastructure. Sita UK, along with partners Scottish Widows Investment Partners and Itochu Corporation, will [...]
Serco sells UK transport technology business November 27, 2013 Serco announced yesterday that it has sold its London streets maintenance and UK transport technology business to Cubic Corporation for £43.5m. The FTSE 100 outsourcer, which lost out on a contract to run prisons in South Yorkshire last week and is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for its electronic tagging work, said the [...]
Train with no seats may ease congestion November 25, 2013 BRITAIN’S railways could carry more commuters without spending billions on upgrades if trains offered third-class carriages with almost no seats, a report out yesterday claimed. Passengers could pay a fifth less to travel in a “high-density” section that would be modelled on the London Overground carriages, the paper by transport expert David Starkie for the [...]
Amazon contemplates Tube ticket offices as collection points November 22, 2013 Transport for London is said to be in talks with online retail giant Amazon to convert Tube ticket offices into "drop off" points for parcels. An Amazon Locker is already being trialled at Hammersmith station. The self-service collection points are popping up at pick-up locations across the UK, and are expected to be piloted in other Tube stations [...]
Tube set to open all night on Fridays and Saturdays November 21, 2013 THE TUBE will keep running through the night at weekends from 2015, in a plan hailed by firms as changing the face of London’s night-time economy. However, unions threatened strike action after TfL announced alongside the night Tube that it was scrapping ticket office staff. Mayor Boris Johnson said London will be “a city fit [...]
The 24 hour Tube is a triumph for London – but we can go further November 21, 2013 IN AN open letter to passengers, the mayor and Transport for London have committed themselves to a 24 hour Tube. It’s an exciting announcement, and will undoubtedly deliver a boost to London’s £8bn a year dining and entertainment industry. But there are wider implications for the capital. For decades, the Underground has run New Year’s [...]
London’s Night Tube could see property prices jump November 21, 2013 Great news if you own London property. Maybe not so great if your rent is already eating up half of your wages. An impact study by GVA found that the Crossrail transport project would increase "residential and commercial value of as much as £5.5bn along the route between 2012 and 2021". The availability of a [...]
Commuters stay underground as high-flyers shun cable cars November 20, 2013 ONE of London’s great white elephant projects – the Emirates Air Line cable cars – was used by just four regular commuters in the week from Saturday 13 October. With a maximum capacity of 2,500 people an hour, the link between the O2 in Greenwich and the ExCel centre at the Royal Docks operates well [...]
Hyder Consulting nets UK work but Australia drags on its profit November 20, 2013 HYDER Consulting, the engineering consultant behind the London Bridge station refurbishment and the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, reported a 20 per cent jump in UK revenues yesterday. Group revenues were flat at £150m and half-year profits slipped from £11.9m to £10.6m, however, with the weaker Australian dollar and a drop in performance bonuses behind the slide. [...]
Just four commuters use Boris’ £60m Emirates Airline cable cars November 20, 2013 One of London's great white elephant projects – the Emirates Airline cable cars – were used by just four regular commuters in the week from Saturday 13 October. With a capacity of 2,500 people an hour, the link between the O2 in Greenwich and the ExCel centre at the Royal Docks operates well below that [...]