A village in the heart of London October 10, 2013 It’s a tale of two towns with Clapham, but this new property in the Old Town allows residents to sample the best of both worlds CLAPHAM is the Dr Jekyll of south London districts. By day, it’s as genteel as you like. Well-to-do mothers crowd the streets, sipping good quality coffee while gently rocking babies [...]
HS2 minister to drive Goodwill October 9, 2013 ALL aboard the ever-changing payroll at the Department for Transport. The department yesterday announced the roles of Baroness Kramer and Robert Goodwill, who joined the office as part of this week’s government reshuffle. Kramer, a former Lib Dem MP for the London constituency of Richmond Park, will have the northern legs of High Speed 2 [...]
Passengers welcome limit on rail fare increases in January October 9, 2013 PASSENGER groups have welcomed the government’s plan to cap rail fare rises at two per cent above inflation, but some have called for prices to be controlled even more tightly. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin yesterday lowered the ceiling five per cent in real terms, which train companies could impose as long as its overall average [...]
State-run East Coast railway returns £200m October 8, 2013 THE STATE-RUN East Coast Main Line handed more than £200m to the taxpayer last year as revenues rose. The London-to-Scotland route was nationalised in 2009 after franchise operator National Express handed back the keys early, and is due to be put back in the private sector by February 2015 – a plan that has been opposed [...]
Grounding planes means grounding growth: We must act on airports now October 8, 2013 A SOLUTION to London’s airport capacity crisis is a national imperative. After years of indecision and inertia, we have got to act to support growth. Heathrow opened in March 1946, less than a year after the war, and has since grown to become the world’s third busiest airport. Yet in the time it took to [...]
Meander through London on the trail of great Italian food October 8, 2013 London Restaurant Festival’s Ciccheti Trail is a foodie’s dream THE PUB crawl, once a concept that filled my youthful soul with an inordinate degree of excitement, nowadays seems somewhat antiquated. Is this my fault – is it simply that I have grown into a dour 30-something severely lacking any kind of alacrity? Or is the [...]
Nationalised rail company returns £208m to the taxpayer October 8, 2013 Directly Operated Railways has returned £208.7m to the taxpayer after a huge increase in revenues. DOR, a holding company setup by the Department of Transport, took over the running of the London-Scotland route four years ago. Turnover has increased 4.2 per cent to £693.8m, total ticket sales were also up by 4.2 per cent. It [...]
City of London is considering car-free roads around Bank October 7, 2013 RADICAL plans to pedestrianise some roads around the Bank of England are being considered by the City of London Corporation, as it looks to cut traffic in the Square Mile and meet the demands of the area’s growing workforce. The plans, known as the Bank Area Strategy, include increasing the areas for pedestrians, making roads [...]
Elliott Advisors’ earnings rise as firm eyes modest expansion October 3, 2013 LONDON-BASED hedge fund adviser Elliott Advisors UK (EAUK) has said its turnover was steady last year, following several turbulent years in the wake of the financial crisis. EAUK, whose sole client is the activist US hedge fund Elliott Management, said revenues in 2012 fell from £52.6m to £50.7m and profit after tax rose from £1m [...]
First Group wins an extension to its Great Western rail franchise October 3, 2013 FIRST Group has won 23 more months of running the Great Western rail route between London and the south west. The franchise was due to expire this month, and will need to be renewed again before the government awards the long-term contract to start in 2016. Many of Britain’s rail operators have been handed extensions [...]