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Transport 1996
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The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
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Carisbrooke Shipping has acquired the remaining 50% of Vectis Shipping, the Isle of Wight operator of sea freight vessels, from its joint venture partner James Fisher for £539,000. 31-Dec-1996 English Welsh & Scottish Railway, the US-owned company, has been selected as preferred bidder for Railfreight Distribution, the British Rail Channel tunnel freight train operator. 27-Dec-1996 The Civil Aviation Authority has recommended that a second advanced air traffic control centre should be built, at Prestwick, Strathclyde, in order to back up the centre being built at Swanwick. 24-Dec-1996 The merger of P&O's container shipping interests with Nedlloyd has been given the go-ahead by the European Commission. 21-Dec-1996 MTL Trust Holdings has won the passenger train franchise for Merseyside, although responsibility for setting fares and gaining new business will stay with the local passenger transport executive. 21-Dec-1996 National Express has been ordered by the government to provide guarantees on coach fares and timetables in order to avoid having its acquisition of the Midland Mainline rail franchise referred to competition authorities. 21-Dec-1996 National Express has been selected as preferred bidder for Taybus, the Dundee-based bus operator. 20-Dec-1996 British Airways is planning to sell its 24.6% stake in USAir, marking the end of a 4-year relationship which became strained when BA announced plans to link up with American Airlines. 19-Dec-1996 Channel tunnel traffic fell by over 40% in November, compared to October, due to the fire, with 295,161 Eurostar passengers, 33,182 trucks, 142,047 cars, and 212,827 tonnes of Railfreight. 10-Dec-1996 GB Railways has won the franchise to operate Anglia Railways, and is now planning a listing on the Alternative Investment Market. 07-Dec-1996 Prism Rail has won the West Anglia Great Northern rail franchise, and plans to introduce discounted fares and more flexible season tickets. 07-Dec-1996 British Airways has received UK government approval for its alliance with American Airlines, conditional on the surrender of 168 slots at Heathrow airport. 07-Dec-1996 FirstBus has won the Great Eastern rail network franchise, which runs from London's Liverpool Street station to Ipswich, Harwich, Southend and Clacton. 05-Dec-1996 Optare, the UK bus builder, is setting up a joint venture with Ceylinco of Sri Lanka and Itochu of Japan to build up to 500 vehicles per year in Sri Lanka. 03-Dec-1996 The government is considering measures to allow 40-tonne lorries to be used on UK roads from next year, with the maximum weight rising to 44 tonnes in 1999. 03-Dec-1996 Stagecoach is linking up with Freightliner and Transfesa of Spain to bid for Railfreight Distribution, the British Rail operator of container trains through the Channel tunnel, while a separate bid has come from English Welsh & Scottish Railway. 03-Dec-1996 UK airlines may be given access to the US domestic market as the US government is considering plans to allow them to set up franchise agreements with small US carriers. 30-Nov-1996 Virgin Group is planning to introduce a new Voyager class to attract business travellers to its CrossCountry Trains operation, and will also offer special promotions for students. 30-Nov-1996 The proposed merger of the P&O and Stena Line ferry operators has been referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission. 29-Nov-1996 Virgin Group has won the CrossCountry train franchise, which runs between Aberdeen in the north and Penzance and Brighton in the south. 29-Nov-1996 Prism Rail has been selected as preferred bidder for the West Anglia Great Northern train franchise, which runs trains from Kings Cross and Liverpool Street in London to Cambridge, Peterborough, Huntingdon and Stansted. 28-Nov-1996 Generale des Eaux of France is aiming to increase its share of the UK rail market from 18% to 25% by bidding for all of the remaining regional rail franchises. 28-Nov-1996 Eddie Stobart Ltd has bought the former Volvo bus factory near Workington, which it will use as a regional base. 27-Nov-1996 Amey Construction and Sir Robert McAlpine have won a £175m contract to build the 28km Croydon Tramlink light rail network, which is due to open in late 1999. 26-Nov-1996 British Airways is in discussions with a number of companies over the sale of its ground fleet services operation, which employs 470 people. 26-Nov-1996 TBI, the property company, is looking to acquire more regional airports and seaports to add to its existing Belfast and Cardiff airports. 21-Nov-1996 Ansaldo of Italy has won a £100m contract from Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority to set up and operate for 17 years a 7km extension to the city's metropolitan railway. 19-Nov-1996 Stagecoach has confirmed plans to spend £57m buying 625 new buses and coaches next year, with an option on a further 250. 19-Nov-1996 Prism Rail has been shortlisted for the ScotRail and North West Regional Railway franchises. 19-Nov-1996 The government is planning to invite private companies to set up a network of regional traffic control centres to manage traffic on all main roads in England, thus taking control away from the police. 18-Nov-1996 ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation is to cut a further 188 jobs at its Doncaster railway maintenance workshop, blaming a fall in work on freight locomotives following privatisation. 15-Nov-1996 English Welsh & Scottish Railway is planning a major expansion in the transport of single-wagon shipments around the country, by linking its Solent ports, North Thameside, North Humberside and East Anglia to its "enterprise service". 14-Nov-1996 Virgin Group has been selected as preferred bidder for the Cross Country rail franchise, which includes train services from Edinburgh and Aberdeen to Penzance and Brighton. 14-Nov-1996 Eurostar, the operator of Channel Tunnel trains, is planning a £10m global ticketing system which will enable passengers to buy tickets from 11,000 sites in the UK. 14-Nov-1996 Jacobs Holdings, the shipping and transport group, is planning to make an offer for Ropner, the shipping, engineering and property group, having built up a 10% stake. 14-Nov-1996 The number of commercial vehicle over 3.5 tonnes that are operated on short-term rental has risen four-fold since 1991, demonstrating how vehicle operators have downsized their own fleets, according to the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association. 12-Nov-1996 Freightliner is linking up with Transfesa, the Spanish freight operator, to bid for British Rail's international container business, which the government expects to sell early next year. 11-Nov-1996 Christian Salvesen, the distribution company, is planning to demerge its Aggreko equipment hire operation in an effort to improve its financial performance. 11-Nov-1996 Channel tunnel freight traffic reached a new record in October at 60,360 lorries, up 42% on last year, while tourist traffic was the second highest month of the year. 07-Nov-1996 FirstBus is ordering 914 new vehicles in a £80m replacement programme, supplied by a number of manufacturers and including new features such as double glazing and air suspension. 06-Nov-1996 Unipart, along with three development capital groups, is considering a bid for Railpart, the British Rail supplier of rolling stock spares, in a move that would take Unipart away from its core business of supplying automotive parts. 05-Nov-1996 NFC is considering a plan to auction its Lynx express parcels business to a bank or venture capitalist that would support a management buy-out. 04-Nov-1996 Cowie's £282m acquisition of British Bus is being referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission, mainly due to the effects on competition in Surrey, Kent and south London. 01-Nov-1996 Nightfreight, the express parcel and freight group, has bought the Pacemaker Group for about £5m. 30-Oct-1996 Railtrack is planning to build a rail station at Stockley Park near Heathrow, in order to provide links to the airport from the West Country and the Thames valley. 28-Oct-1996 USAir is to end its code-sharing and frequent traveller programme with British Airways next March, as part of a move by the US carrier to cut its links with BA following the announcement of BA's alliance with American Airlines. 25-Oct-1996 The government has postponed plans to privatise the air traffic control service until after the general election. 25-Oct-1996 Virgin Express is discussing the acquisition of some flights between London and Brussels from Sabena, the Belgian airline. 25-Oct-1996 Eurotunnel is to cut 657 jobs in order to save £32m a year, and will make further savings through improved purchasing policies and reduced energy costs. 23-Oct-1996 British Airways has decided to drop plans to franchise its Beirut, Amman and Damascus flights to British Mediterranean due to failure to agree terms for the franchise. 22-Oct-1996 Stagecoach says it will avoid having its acquisition of Porterbrook Leasing referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission by complying with conditions set by the Department of Trade and Industry. 19-Oct-1996 West Midlands Travel has acquired a stake in the £145m Midland Metro project, along with John Laing and Ansaldo Transporti of Italy, which will provide a tram system in Birmingham. 17-Oct-1996 Connex Rail, the subsidiary of Compagnie Generale des Eaux of France, has won the South Eastern rail franchise, which covers Kent and Sussex, and has also been shortlisted for the Great Eastern franchise. 15-Oct-1996 Sea Containers is to run a new ferry route between the Mull of Kintyre and Northern Ireland from next July. 12-Oct-1996 Virgin Express is in discussions to acquire assets and French landing and take-off slots from Air Liberte, the failed French regional carrier. 11-Oct-1996 World Airlines, the small operator of flights between London City Airport and Amsterdam, has collapsed due to the European price war. 10-Oct-1996 Stagecoach has agreed to limit its transport activities in the north east of England, following accusations by the Monopolies & Mergers Commission that it had been trying to put small bus operators out of business. 09-Oct-1996 Eurotunnel has announced a complex restructuring deal in which its banks will take a 45.5% stake and its debts and interest payments will be reduced. 08-Oct-1996 London Underground has reported that the cost of building the extension to the Jubilee line has risen by 31% since the original forecast to £2.5bn, and it is in discussions with the government on how to finance the cost overrun. 05-Oct-1996 P&O and Stena Lines plan to combine their cross-Channel ferry services in response to the price war that started with the opening of the Channel Tunnel. 04-Oct-1996 Virgin Group has proposed a £50m plan to operate trains between Heathrow Airport and the City of London, and is seeking approval from BAA, the airport operator. 03-Oct-1996 Railfreight Distribution, the British Rail freight business due to be sold off, has had six bidders shortlisted, including Transfesa of Spain, GE Capital of the US, Tibbett & Britten, English Welsh and Scottish Railway, Freightliner and National Power. 02-Oct-1996 Securicor Omega Express is testing a business postal delivery service in order to be prepared for any possible lifting of the Royal Mail monopoly on postal services. 02-Oct-1996 UK ports had a 2% increase in total import and export traffic to 548m tonnes in 1995, the sixth consecutive annual increase, according to the Department of Transport. 01-Oct-1996 Newcastle airport is proposing a £26m expansion, which would create up to 2,400 jobs. 25-Sep-1996 Prism Rail, Virgin and a management team from Great Western Railways have been shortlisted for the franchise for Cross-Country Trains, which operates long-distance services such as Glasgow to Bournemouth. 24-Sep-1996 The government has referred the £110m takeover of Strathclyde Bus Holdings by FirstBus to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission, due to fears about the effect on competition in the central Scotland bus market. 24-Sep-1996 The Confederation of Passenger Transport is campaigning for an improvement in the quality of bus services, saying that local authorities should be allowed to set up deals that require a higher standard from bus companies. 24-Sep-1996 The train franchise for the west coast mainline between London and Glasgow is to be offered for sale next month, with bids likely from bus companies such as Prism and Stagecoach as well as the existing management team. 21-Sep-1996 Stagecoach has won the passenger train franchise for Island Line on the Isle of Wight. 21-Sep-1996 The water industry and local authorities are considering plans to build a £6bn canal across the north of England to carry ships between the Atlantic and the North Sea, a scheme which would be the UK's biggest civil engineering project since the Channel Tunnel. 20-Sep-1996 ABB-Daimler Benz Transportation is developing a tilting train for the UK market, and companies such as Great Western and InterCity East Coast are said to be interested in reintroducing the trains which were abandoned by British Rail in the 1980s. 20-Sep-1996 Go-Ahead Group has won the Thames Trains passenger franchise through Victory Railway, which is 65% owned by Go-Ahead and 35% by Thames management. 20-Sep-1996 The government is to increase the financial incentives for hauliers to switch freight traffic from roads to rail, with the allowance rising from 5p a mile to 20p a mile. 19-Sep-1996 BAA, the airport operator, is in discussions with five train companies over plans to establish a nationwide network of rail links from Heathrow to Gatwick, the south coast, Manchester and Birmingham. 19-Sep-1996 British Airways is planning to save £1bn over three years by cutting back in areas such as baggage handling and ticket processing, with voluntary redundancy being offered to 5,000 staff. 19-Sep-1996 Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive is trying to stop the sale of the ScotRail franchise, claiming that local councillors have not agreed the minimum level of services to be provided. 18-Sep-1996 BAA, the airport operator, is to provide most of the funding for the £70m project to extend London Underground's Piccadilly line to Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5. 17-Sep-1996 National Express is planning to bid for all 12 remaining rail franchises and is also looking to acquire more bus companies, especially in continental Europe. 11-Sep-1996 The Go-Ahead Group and a management team from Thames Trains are expected to win the franchise for the train services from London Paddington and Gatwick Airport to Stratford, Oxford and Worcester. 10-Sep-1996 Eurostar has had to delay plans to introduce sleeper services through the Channel Tunnel because some of the mainline rail track in the UK cannot cope with the heavier power demand of sleeper trains. 09-Sep-1996 Chiltern Railways is ordering 12 diesel-powered express trains from ABB-Daimler Benz Transportation, a contract which should create over 100 new jobs at Adtranz's plant in Derby. 07-Sep-1996 The sale of the ScotRail franchise may be delayed until after the general election, apparently due to franchise details not being provided to the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority. 31-Aug-1996 British Airways is to franchise its flights to Beirut, Amman and Damascus, to British Mediterranean Airways, as it has not been able to make these services economic. 29-Aug-1996 Prism Rail has been named as the preferred bidder for two more rail franchises - the South Wales and West region and Cardiff Railway. 28-Aug-1996 FirstBus has confirmed that it is planning to bid for nearly all the 12 rail franchises yet to be privatised. 27-Aug-1996 Irish Air LP, a group of US investors, has bought a 20% stake in Ryanair, the Irish airline. 24-Aug-1996 CGEA of France has won the passenger train franchise for south-east London, Kent and Sussex - the service previously run by South Eastern Train Company. 22-Aug-1996 Mersey Docks & Harbour is closing its cross-Channel passenger ferry service that runs between Kent and the Netherlands, blaming the price war. 22-Aug-1996 Nokia of Finland has won a £10m contract to supply mobile radio systems for the London Underground's Northern Line. 20-Aug-1996 Stena Line has said it is not interested in merging with rival ferry operator P&O, but would be prepared to co-operate in order to fight off competition from the Channel Tunnel. 20-Aug-1996 Stena Line, the ferry operator, is seeking to buy four more high-speed catamarans for about £145m from a Finnish shipyard. 13-Aug-1996 CGEA of France has emerged as the preferred bidder for the South Eastern train franchise. 08-Aug-1996 Christian Salvesen's directors have rejected the £1.18bn takeover bid from Hays, the distribution group, and are now considering a possible break-up or disposals. 07-Aug-1996 Eurotunnel has reported a big rise in the number of tourist vehicles on Le Shuttle in July to 234,393, compared to 112,060 last year. 06-Aug-1996 Virgin Atlantic is discussing the formation of an alliance with BWIA, the Caribbean airline, which could involve code-sharing or Virgin taking a 27% stake in BWIA. 06-Aug-1996 USAir is going to the US courts to try to end its link with British Airways following the announcement of plans by BA to form an alliance with American Airlines. 05-Aug-1996 Stagecoach has made a £825m bid for Porterbrook Leasing, the railway rolling stock leasing company, a move which may be referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission. 01-Aug-1996 National Express has been referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission as it has refused to promote rival coach services following its acquisition of the Midland Mainline InterCity rail franchise. 31-Jul-1996 Hays is looking to buy Christian Salvesen, possibly for more than £1bn, in a deal that would create the largest distribution group in Europe. 26-Jul-1996 Stagecoach has been appointed the preferred bidder for Swebus, the Swedish bus operator. 25-Jul-1996 Stagecoach is planning to bid for all 12 remaining rail passenger franchises, and also plans to make acquisitions in continental Europe. 24-Jul-1996 British Airways is acquiring the remaining 50.1% of TAT European Airlines, the French regional carrier, from the family owners for £21m. 24-Jul-1996 BAA has acquired the remaining 30% of the £350m Heathrow Express project from British Rail for £20m. 23-Jul-1996 British Airways is switching its Latin American routes from Heathrow to Gatwick Airport, where it will create up to 500 jobs. 18-Jul-1996 The government has relaxed restrictions on the cross-channel ferry companies - P&O, Stena Line and Hoverspeed - which will enable them to align fares, pool their activities and even merge. 17-Jul-1996 National Express Group, the coach operator, says it may refuse to comply with Office of Fair Trading restrictions regarding its acquisition of two rail franchises, and this could lead to a full MMC review of transport competition between London and Sheffield. 16-Jul-1996 A lobby group called the Railway Forum is being launched by six railway services companies to promote the use of rail. 11-Jul-1996 British Rail has decided against bidding for passenger train franchises as there has been more interest from the private-sector than expected. 10-Jul-1996 British Rail has written off £500m on its Channel tunnel freight service investment as it does not believe it will be profitable in the near future. 04-Jul-1996 Cleveland Trust, the property investment concern, is acquiring 75% of the Port of Boston in Lincolnshire for £465k. 02-Jul-1996 The trade and industry secretary is threatening to refer National Express' acquisition of the Midland Mainline rail franchise to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission due to fears that competition will be reduced. 28-Jun-1996 British Waterways is linking up with Birmingham council to introduce a canal bus scheme, which will take commuters from the suburbs to the city centre, thus reducing car traffic. 28-Jun-1996 Excalibur Airways, the charter airline, has gone into liquidation due to a loss in consumer confidence caused by safety concerns about its aircraft. 27-Jun-1996 A seven year franchise for Chiltern Railways has been won by a management team called M40 Trains, which has committed to buy 12 new diesel express trains. 26-Jun-1996 Business Post Group is planning a new national distribution centre in Birmingham at a cost of £7.6m. 26-Jun-1996 The government has relaxed curbs on Stagecoach that were preventing the company from acquiring bus operators in South Yorkshire and western Scotland. 22-Jun-1996 FirstBus has formed a joint venture with the management of South East Trains to bid for the South East Trains franchise. 19-Jun-1996 The National Express coach operator is planning to use a fleet of 14 gas-powered buses in the West Midlands in order to cut exhaust emissions. 18-Jun-1996 British Airways and American Airlines have agreed an alliance in which they will co-ordinate their schedules and sell seats on each other's flights from April 1997. 12-Jun-1996 The preferred bidder for the Chiltern Railway network is a management team, with support from 3i and John Laing. 11-Jun-1996 Railfreight Distribution, which runs freight trains to the Continent, is to be sold off with the government promising to write off hundreds of millions of pounds of debt. 07-Jun-1996 Unijet, the travel concern, is to acquire the remaining 60% of Leisure International Airways from Air UK and British Air Transport Holdings. 05-Jun-1996 Freightliner, the British Rail container operation, has been acquired by management and plans to expand volumes by 50% over the next five years by increasing its number of locomotives from 60 to 100. 30-May-1996 Eurotunnel, the Channel Tunnel operator, is cutting its standard return fare by half over the summer to £129, thus intensifying the cross-Channel price war. 30-May-1996 The Light Rail Group, a consortium that includes John Mowlem, GEC-Alsthom, Mitsui and London Electricity, is thought to be the preferred bidder to build the 2.5 mile Lewisham extension of the Docklands Light Railway. 23-May-1996 The government has awarded contracts to two consortia, led by GEC-Marconi and Bosch, for trials of an electronic tolling system for motorways. 16-May-1996 Prism Rail has won the franchise for the London-Tilbury-Southend passenger train route, and said it is interested in at least a further four franchises. 10-May-1996 Management Consortium Bid, a team of former managers, has been named preferred bidder for Freightliner, the British Rail freight subsidiary. 10-May-1996 Eurotunnel reports that Channel tunnel traffic rose in April, with tourist traffic up 60% on last year and freight traffic up 80%. 07-May-1996 The government has set the sale value of Railtrack at up to £1.95bn when it lists on the London stock exchange on May 20. 02-May-1996 Stena of Sweden has said it would not be interested in discussing a possible merger with P&O, following news that P&O wanted to look into merging their cross-channel ferry operations. 02-May-1996 P&O is asking the government to allow it to start merger discussions with Stena, the Swedish operator of cross-channel ferries, as they are suffering from competition from the channel tunnel. 01-May-1996 Carisbrooke Shipping, from the Isle of Wight, plans to raise £2m in a flotation on the Alternative Investment Market. 29-Apr-1996 The government has offered seven more passenger rail franchises for sale, including Great Eastern, Merseyrail, West Anglia Great Northern, ScotRail, Island Line, CrossCountry, and Thameslink. 26-Apr-1996 National Express, the coach company, has won a ten year franchise to operate the Midland Mainline InterCity rail service between London and South Yorkshire. 22-Apr-1996 CGEA Group of France has won a seven-year franchise to run Network SouthCentral, the rail commuter network in south London and the south coast. 13-Apr-1996 The Great Western rail company is agreeing an efficiency deal with train drivers that will see them get 20% more pay. 12-Apr-1996 The government has given the go-ahead for the construction of a Channel rail freight terminal at Wentloog near Cardiff. 04-Apr-1996 BICC's Balfour Beatty subsidiary has acquired three British Rail track maintenance companies - Eastern Infrastructure Maintenance Company, Southern Track Renewals Company and South East Infrastructure Maintenance Company - for a total £50m. 04-Apr-1996 Transig, the consortium of ABB-Daimler Benz and Westinghouse Signals, and another consortium comprising GEC Alsthom and Siemens, have won contracts from Railtrack to develop a train control system for the main west coast railway line. 03-Apr-1996 The Eurotrans consortium, headed by British Bus, has won a £100m 30-year contract to set up a tram network in Leeds. 01-Apr-1996 The French government is to award Brittany Ferries a £40m subsidy to compensate them for the high cost of using French crews. 30-Mar-1996 National Express is expected to win the passenger train franchises for Gatwick Express and Midland Mainline companies, assuming the OFT does not object. 29-Mar-1996 Jacobs Holdings plans to make acquisitions in all its three core businesses - transport, shipping and property. 29-Mar-1996 London Underground is seeking partners in the private sector to fund £100m plans to expand tube lines in east London. 28-Mar-1996 Air UK is to take British Airways to court over BA's plans to start flights from London's Gatwick airport to Edinburgh. 27-Mar-1996 Inchcape plans to focus its efforts on distribution by selling its testing services division and demerging its insurance broking business. 26-Mar-1996 The government has rejected proposals by British Aerospace to build a commercial airport at its Filton airfield near Bristol. 23-Mar-1996 The Go-Ahead Group has issued a profits warning due to increased competition between bus operators in Oxford. 22-Mar-1996 National Express is investing £30m in 300 new buses following its first increase in passenger numbers for ten years. 22-Mar-1996 Eastern Track Renewals has been sold to management for £13m, the sixth of the 13 British Rail track and maintenance companies to be sold off. 19-Mar-1996 Some freight operators are complaining that they are no longer allowed to fill empty rail containers returning from abroad due to government rules for the sell-off of British Rail. 16-Mar-1996 Railtrack is arranging a £2bn - £2.5bn loan facility with BZW to fund its investments over the next five years, and needs to complete the arrangements before its flotation in May. 15-Mar-1996 The Tramtrak consortium, comprising Sir Robert McAlpine, Royal Bank of Scotland, CentreWest and Bombardier Eurorail, has won a £160m contract to build an 18 mile tram network in south London. 13-Mar-1996 Railtrack has vowed to improve its safety procedures following a critical report from the Safety Inspectorate. 08-Mar-1996 Birmingham International Airport has won permission for a £400m expansion which will almost double the size of its main terminal. 06-Mar-1996 Eurotunnel has ordered 72 freight wagons from Arbel of France as part of a plan to increase freight capacity by 7% from the current 3,900 trucks a day. 06-Mar-1996 The London & Continental Railways consortium has won the £3bn contract to build the high-speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel, and it is taking over European Passenger Services to operate the train services. 01-Mar-1996 The Docklands Light Railway is now on offer to the private sector as a seven year franchise, with a decision expected in autumn. 29-Feb-1996 The government has approved a £650m plan for Thameslink 2000 to expand London's north-south rail links, with Railtrack to pay £550m of the construction costs. 28-Feb-1996 AT Mays, the travel agent chain, is to stop selling railway tickets from 100 of its shops due to the problems of dealing with 25 separate rail companies. 26-Feb-1996 Wisconsin Central Transportation, the new owner of British Rail's Trainload Freight business has said it will consider building its own UK railway lines if Railtrack does not invest in the development of freight services. 26-Feb-1996 Anglia Railways and Thames Trains are now being offered to bidders, and should be privately owned by September. 20-Feb-1996 Trinity Holdings and Cummins are to jointly develop a hybrid citybus that will combine an electric drive with a natural gas or diesel engine. 12-Feb-1996 The government is to reopen the bidding for the London, Tilbury and Southend rail line following the reversal of the decision to award it to LTS Rail, due to an alleged ticket fraud. 09-Feb-1996 Eurostar reports that 1,071 high speed trains went through the Channel Tunnel in January, up from 318 a year ago. 07-Feb-1996 A Stagecoach company has won the franchise to run two new bus routes in Hampshire to link to services operated by South West Trains, itself a Stagecoach company. 06-Feb-1996 Virgin is trying to acquire a majority stake in European Belgian Airlines. 06-Feb-1996 Stagecoach is buying a 10% stake in New Zealand Bus, the holding company of its New Zealand subsidiary. 03-Feb-1996 British Bus is said to be unlikely to go ahead with its planned flotation this year due to an inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office into an alleged gift from the chairman to a bank. 29-Jan-1996 The government has raised £145m by selling its remaining 2.9% stake in BAA, the airports operator. 26-Jan-1996 Railtrack will be expected to compensate train operators with as much as £59m this year for delays to services caused by track and signalling problems. 24-Jan-1996 Railtrack expects a 30% cut in investment costs after it is privatised as it will not be forced to plan its spending annually. 24-Jan-1996 Russell Davies has pulled out of the bidding for the privatisation of Freightliner, but its two partners - P&O Distribution and the Port of Felixstowe - are still interested. 24-Jan-1996 The government has said it would consider 15-year franchises for the next set of rail bids, rather than restricting bids to seven years. 17-Jan-1996 FirstBus has acquired 20% of Mainline Partnership, the South Yorkshire bus company, for £1.6m from Stagecoach. 13-Jan-1996 Commercial vehicle registrations rose 9.6% in 1995 to 249,928, with heavy trucks up over 20%, according to the SMMT. 12-Jan-1996 The government has launched voluntary measures to improve bus services, including less service changes, the use of cleaner and more comfortable buses, and preventing companies from running buses too close together. 09-Jan-1996 BAA plans to acquire a controlling stake in Gesac, the company which runs Naples airport. 08-Jan-1996 Nightfreight has stopped distributing The Independent newspaper, and has agreed compensation as its three-year contract is incomplete. 05-Jan-1996 The government has said that Railtrack shares will be sold nationally through share shops next May. 04-Jan-1996 Dart Line is taking over the running of the Dartford to Vlissingen freight ferry route, previously run by Sally Line. 04-Jan-1996 The information below comes from the UK Activity Report. Click here for further details Copyright UK Business Park 1995-2007