Why transport is the key to unlocking London’s garden suburb renaissance February 13, 2014 THIRTEEN miles east of the Palace of Westminster, a development is taking place that is vital to the future of London’s housing debate. On the site of a former Victorian power station, a town the size of Windsor is being built. Barking Riverside is London’s newest suburb. It is the cousin of Battersea and, while [...]
Creating the height of luxury at The Shard February 13, 2014 Laura Ivill speaks to André Fu about his design plans for the world’s top hotels AS I join André Fu at The Berkeley hotel in Knightsbridge, the sunlight is pouring in and he is surrounded by flowers. It is three weeks before his new suite is launched and he is working on the final details [...]
UK engineer Fandstan sold to New York’s Wabtec for £130m February 12, 2014 FANDSTAN Electric Group, the London-headquartered engineering group whose subsidiaries have provided parts for London’s DLR and the Eurostar, has been sold to New York-listed Wabtec for £130m. The private company was founded by Lord Tanlaw, a former director of his family firm Inchcape, whose grandfather was the final White Rajah of Sarawak, the dynastic monarchy [...]
The boffins have proved it: Commuting makes you miserable February 12, 2014 Who’d be a commuter? Escalating train fares, Tube strikes, people sneezing without covering their noses. My soul’s getting heavy just thinking about it. And now even the boffins at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are weighing in, performing a complex “regression analysis” – a way of comparing lots of different variables, in this case [...]
TfL to talk more with unions now Tube strike is off February 11, 2014 TRANSPORT unions called off a 48-hour Tube strike hours before it was due to start last night, after last-ditch talks with London Underground officials produced the seeds of a compromise. The two sides agreed to sit down for further “intensive talks” over the next two months, taking the RMT and TSSA representatives station by station [...]
The Docklands legacy can help fix London’s chronic housing crisis February 11, 2014 LONDON’S housing crisis is caused largely by a chronic shortage of new homes, which is pushing the average house price in the capital north of £500,000. Only 18,000 new homes were completed last year, barely a third as many as are needed to match population growth and household formation. There is no silver bullet to [...]
Second Tube walkout set to start tonight February 10, 2014 TRANSPORT unions and London Underground negotiators will today make a last-ditch attempt to avoid a second wave of staff walkouts on the Tube, due to start at 9pm. Talks at resolution service Acas broke up last night without a compromise, but both sides have agreed to meet again at 9am. If they fail to find [...]
First fleet of electric minicabs starts work on London’s streets February 10, 2014 A FLEET of electric minicabs will start operating in London today, two months after the capital got its first fully electric buses. Chinese firm BYD manufactured the 20 vehicles which have been bought by chauffer service Thriev. The new cars – the e6 model – come four years ahead of mayor Boris Johnson’s deadline for [...]
Victoria set for £4bn investment as Armani and Jimmy Choo relocate February 10, 2014 Victoria is set for a £4bn investment over the next decade as developers cash in on companies following in Armani and Jimmy Choo's footsteps and relocating their headquarters to the area. London’s busy transport hub has undergone a major shift over the last ten years as government departments who were traditionally the biggest office-users in [...]
Tube talks go up to the wire as strike looms February 10, 2014 UNIONS and transport officials will meet today as they try to ward off a second week of strike action on the London Underground. Both sides left the resolution service Acas on Friday night without a deal but pledged to “consider their positions” over the weekend. The RMT and TSSA unions are due to walk out [...]