Current News / Campaigns

 

TWPTUG Event : Climate Emergency and the Role of Public Transport, Monday Oct 14, 6pm at Royal Station Hotel (Collingwood Room). Speakers and panel: Norman Baker (Campaign for Better Transport), Jamie Driscoll (North of Tyne Mayor) and Cathy Massarella (Nexus).

 

NOT MANY TICKETS LEFT. Click here to sign up for FREE ticket.

 

About this Event: The UK government has set a target of reaching 'net zero' carbon emissions by 2050 and many local authorities have declared 'climate emergencies' to reduce their own emissions to avoid dangerous climate change. But what is the role of transport in tackling this important issue? What needs to be done to reduce transport's contribution of 30% of UK CO2 emisisons? How can we do this whilst ensuring fair and equitable access to jobs, services, and our region's attractions?

 

Somerset Council runs coaches to ‘up’ the competition

 

French city of Dunkirk tests out free transport – and it works

 

Transport policies at heart of Scottish climate change plan.

 

Vienna's euro-a-day public transport model could waltz into Berlin

 

Transport User Voice - Driving improvements for bus passengers. Reading Buses maximise use of Bus Passenger Survey.

 

The Economist: Europe is edging towards making post-car cities a reality

 

Newcastle Disability Forum, in conjunction with the local bus companies, are holding an Accessible Bus Day on Saturday 14th September at the RVI. Please see poster for details.

 

Teesside’s own ‘Uber-style’ bus network unveiled

 

Newcastle Chronicle - Newcastle's Labour leader renews calls for North East politicians to take control of bus network

 

TransportNetwork article - Burnham jumps aboard franchising bus

 

TransportNetwork article - Road run-off pollution killing London's rivers

 

TransportNetwork article - Sustrans highlights 'systematic barriers' to cycling

 

The U.S. Has a Fleet of 300 Electric Buses. China Has 421,000 | Bloomberg

 

Changing gear: what next for cycling in Bristol? | The Bristol Cable

 

Transport for New Homes: what do we need? A campaign group is seeking contributions to a checklist that can assess new housing in terms of how well it avoids car-dependency.

 

'Patchy, expensive and nonsensical' - what's up with Greater Manchester's bus service? Manchester Evening News report which reflects the national situation for bus services.

 

Five new electric car charging stations to be built in the North East.

 

Listen to Alistair Ford's interview on Radio 5  Live, broadcast on 7th March, discussing latest proposals for T&W to cut air pollution. Alistair is the Media Officer on TWPTUG's Management  Committee. Interview is at 1h 45mins into the programme. You will need a BBC account to listen to the program. Easy to register if you haven't got one. Many thanks also to Alistair for his efforts!

 

Listen to Wendy Gascoigne's interview on Radio Tyneside, with Yvonne Bell, broadcast on 7th March, telling people about the work of PTUG in South Tyneside and beyond. Wendy is the Chair of STPTUG. Many thanks to Wendy for promoting PTUG! We are also grateful to Radio Tyneside for granting the interview.

 

TfL to trial on-demand bus services - The Transport Network.

 

Metro frequency 'will not be compromised', Newcastle Chronicle article, 4th February 2019. Open as a PDF.

 

Electric buses to hit the streets of Newcastle and Gateshead.

 

£3.5m for next steps of major rail project in south-east Northumberland.

 

Metro struggling to keep drivers due to attractive salaries at larger rail firms.

 

Help us save historic Borough Road Bridge in North Shields. We have an online petition which at the time of writing this has just over 250 signatures. We want to get that up to 500! If you haven't done so already, please take a few minutes to SIGN THE PETITION. Thanks!

 

Transport Committee visits Liverpool to hear about health of bus services.

 

Air pollution may be making us less intelligent.

 

Cambridge vision includes self-driving buses and metro.

 

2nd January 2019 Joint RMT and Labour Rail Campaign Day demo, protesting the 3.1% fare increases after one of the worst years in Rail History. See our Facebook event page for details.

 

Luxembourg to become first country to make all public transport free.

 

Check out the Transport Select Committee's report into the East Coast rail franchise failure.

 

Pedestrian Rights petition on 38 Degrees launched by TWPTUG Chair. Please sign and share.

 

Our buses aren't good enough - Better Buses for Greater Manchester petition to Mayor Andy Burnham. YOU CAN SIGN IN SOLIDARITY if you live outside of Greater Manchester; you don't have to be a Mancunian to express your support!

 

Bus firms pay fat cats £1.5 BILLION - while prices go up 55% and routes are axed - Mirror article.

 

Paul Baker (outgoing TWPTUG Secretary) submits 2018 AGM report submission to the Transport Select Committee's inquiry into the decline of Britain's bus services (paraphrased):

 

"At our recent Officers Meeting. it was suggested I detach the sections of our Annual Report dealing with the bus service crisis (on pages 5 to 7 and the conclusion on page 19). On further thought I have enclosed the whole report as I believe the problems that confront the current provision of public bus services, apply also across other public transport services and have done for a number of years. My report has been written from a national perspective and while it includes much information from local groups I have tried to bring together the wider issues of congestion, change in working patterns and subsequent transport needs, particularly, those of younger people and of course, the impact of increasing car ownership and that impact on air pollution and our climate."

 

Response from Nexus about Metro issues - Shields Gazette article, 31st October (opens as a PDF).

 

Fall in local UK bus journeys to 12-year low prompts talk of crisis.

 

Second council signs cleaner air charter.

 

Electric vehicles and pavement clutter - click here to read Living Streets' response to the Prime Minister's announcement of measures to support the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs).

 

Guardian view on climate change: a global emergency - Editorial

 

UNICEF UK anti-pollution campaign - "EVERY CHILD'S BREATH

IS UNDER THREAT, LET'S CHANGE THAT". Please sign the petition on their website. Thank you!

 

The UK’s most congested cities and A-roads revealed.

 

Transport gap: London gets £419 more per head than north of England - Guardian article.

 

"What is a good public transport service? And how do we get it?" Join our discussion with CHRISTIAN WOLMAR, award winning writer, broadcaster & public transport campaigner, at the Station Hotel, Newcastle on 15th Oct 2018. Admission is FREE but advance registration is REQUIRED. Please click here for details .

 

Police chief reveals Metro fears as youths armed with booze 'cause chaos' at the coast - Chronicle Live article.

 

Several French cities have made public transport free, working on the same principle as Ken Livingstone's 'Fare's Fair'. It saves money in the end to subsidise public transport. See map for the towns in France where you can travel around for free.

 

Guardian Opinion by John Vidal: Air pollution is a lethal blight that shames our politicians.

 

Labour launches rare bid to dock Transport Secretary Chris Grayling's wages by £2,400.

 

City AM article: MPs launch inquiry into East Coast rail franchise failure saying "serious questions" need to be asked. Transport Committee inquiry started 21 May 2018 (see Blog | Transport Select Committee menu.)

 

Grayling plans to put utilities under pavements to cut potholes.

 

Nexus timetable consultation 2018 - click here for results.

 

£4m 'rapid charging' vehicle points in place for Newcastle and Sunderland.

 

Government 'protects' free bus pass but LGA decries funding gap.

 

OECD calls for 20mph limits in built-up areas - A 20’s Plenty for Us press release April 2018 (opens as a PDF document).

 

The Great British Train Robbery - a video by Renegade Inc, featuring the director of We Own It, Cat Hobbs, and Nicole Badstuber, a transport policy researcher at University College London (running time 28 minutes).

 

A 'Thank you' to the British people for privatising our railways - a short TSSA video.

 

Nexus' £8.4m rail training centre in South Shields gets the green light.

 

Passenger Transport magazine: England’s metropolitan areas and Wales see 3.5%-plus declines in bus use in ‘summer of discontent’, as patronage hits lowest level since 2007. Click here to view PDF.

 

The Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Environmental Audit, Health and Social Care, and Transport Committees published their joint report, Improving Air Quality on Thursday 15 March. The report focuses on measures to improve air quality in the UK. Click here for our Transport Committee reports page.

 

House of Commons considers the estimated spending of the Department for Transport - REPORT FROM ALAN CAMPBELL MP

 

Calling all residents in the Heaton/High Heaton area of Newcastle - come and join newly-formed SPACE for HEATON group to campaign for a better environment for all! Check out their short video introduction here.

 

German court rules cities can ban diesel cars to tackle pollution

 

German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution

 

The agenda for the 23 February 2018 meeting of the NECA Transport North East (Tyne and Wear) Sub-Committee has been published and is available at www.northeastca.gov.uk.

 

Rail infrastructure investment to be investigated by Transport Select Committee.

 

Protests planned at UK rail stations to mark steep hike in fares: Guardian article.

 

Rail fares: Commuters 'priced out' by increases, campaigners say: BBC News article.

 

Check out We Own It's email to TWPTUG about it's campaign to bring the East Coast railway line into public ownership on our RAIL PAGE. Don't miss We Own It's founder, Cat Hobbs, on You Tube addressing a Labour Party rally. Please also sign the petition on that page to support the campaign.

 

See Transport Committee's Chair, Lilian Greenwood MP, comments on 2018 rail fare increase.

 

Press Release: Passengers condemn another East Coast bail out

 

Budget November 2017: £337m grant (not PFI scheme) approved to improve Tyne & Wear Metro system:

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/budget-2017-live-stream-updates-13936784

 

Photos from the Transport Workshop at Newcastle Assembly Rooms on 16th October 2017

 

Statement from Nexus on the major disruption on the Tyne and Wear Metro on Sunday 29 October

 

Have your say on the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill!

 

Mobike Newcastle city bikes: How to use them and where are they? Check out the Newcastle Chronicle article and video: www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/mobike-newcastle-city-bikes-how-13768475

 

Newcastle PTUG has set up a petition to the Government requesting funding for the new Metro trains.  Please sign it to put pressure on the Government: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/government-funding-for-tyne-and-wear-metro

 

RMT Arriva Northern Strike - planned picket lines and leafleting ....THURSDAY 5th OCTOBER 2017

 

Newcastle Central

5.00 - 13.30

Meet outside the arches, Newcastle Central Station - entrance to the staff car park.

 

RMT confirms a further two days of strike action on Arriva Rail North in guards' safety dispute:

 

RAIL UNION RMT has confirmed that a further two days of strike action on Arriva Rail North will go ahead on Tuesday 3rd October and Thursday 5th October as the company continues to resist all efforts to make progress in the long-running dispute over rail safety and the head-long dash towards Driver Only Operation.

 

More than half UK investment in transport is in London, says study. Thinktank IPPR North warns gulf in investment between regions is at cost of greater northern productivity.

 

PLEASE ASK YOUR M.P. to support Early Day Motion 109: 'REDUCED ACCESS FOR DISABLED PASSENGERS ON NORTHERN RAIL' tabled by Ian Mearns MP for Gateshead. This is to protect the interests of disabled passengers in unstaffed stations should Driver-Only Operation be introduced. Click on above link to view full EDM text.

 

DON'T FORGET to check out our pages featuring links to interesting articles selected from Passenger Transport magazine. They can be accessed via the 'PT magazine' menu button. Articles from  Issues 161 (2 June 2017) and 162 (16 Jun 2017) recently added to the 'PT Bus articles' page.