Weekly news round up - 21 November 2014

Double decker train option for Waterloo routes to south west, human waste powers bus in Bath and £4bn transport plan for Birmingham.

Jackie Whitelaw
21 November 2014

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1. Double deck trains and electrification of the line to Salisbury are options in the Wessex Route Study from Network Rail looking at lines from London Waterloo to the south and south west now out to public consultation. 

2. Cost of refurbishing the Palace of Westminster could top £3bn and involve moving MPs and Peers out of the Houses of Commons and Lords according to BBC Newsnight. Parts of the building are sinking.

3. The UK government is under more pressure to cut nitrogen dioxide levels in city air largely caused by diesel vehicles following a ruling the European Court of Justice saying the UK Supreme Court must force a clean up. One option would be to fit pollution controls on buses and lorries. According to Environmental Industries Commission executive director Matthew Farrow “solutions do exist and the judgement reinforces the fact that this must be given absolute priority for the next government give the public health impact”.

4. Government’s £11bn plan to install smart energy meters in every home is being delayed by up to a year after DCC, the company in charge of the communications system for the devices warned it would not be ready in time. Energy suppliers are supposed to start the full national installation programme in late 2015 but Government changes to the specification mean the start will go back to Autumn 2016.

5. Three tram lines could be built in Birmingham, alongside high-speed bus routes, under a £4bn transport plan.The city council's 20-year Birmingham Connected scheme also includes details for reopening rail lines and building two new stations. Longer term the A38 through the city centre could be put entirely underground. 

6. Cities spend £23M a year on IT but lack the strategic oversight to make the most of the investment says a new report from Arup  ‘Delivering the Smart City’ analyses the spending patterns of eight major UK cities over the last three years to see how much money they’re paying for technology and whether this expenditure is ‘smart’.

7. Sue Kershaw, CH2M HILL's director of rail, Europe, has been elected onto the board for the Association for Project Management.

8. An eight-week public consultation begins on 5 December for Highways Agency plans for a new link road between the M54, the northbound M6 and the M6 Toll. The scheme is intended to reduce congestion on local roads, improve safety and support economic growth in the surrounding area.

9. Britain's first bus powered by human waste is now running on the route between Bristol Airport and Bath. The 40-seater "Bio-Bus" is fuelled by biomethane gas generated by the treatment of sewage and food waste at a processing plant.

10. Chemicals firm Ineos is to invest up to £640M in shale gas exploration in the UK. The company plans to use the gas as a raw material for its chemicals plants, including Grangemouth in Stirlingshire.