Scottish Caledonian Sleeper Trains halted by RMT strike

There will be no further sleeper services before Christmas, in spite of this normally being an especially busy period.

Members of the RMT union voted to back the 48-hour strike in a dispute with operator Serco over defects on trains.

Serco has insisted that any faults on its rolling stock have been repaired, or will be repaired.

Talks held at the conciliation service Acas on Monday failed to resolve the dispute.

The strike has forced the operator to cancel trains and refund passengers.

'Complete contempt'

 

The RMT union has said its members are concerned about a range of faults on the trains, which Serco has failed to fix.

Entering Plane, Speakout on the worth of your Luggage?

It is not uncommon to find passengers in the airplane come back to report missing luggage and when it’s not recovered after a certain time, such luggage is declared lost. In such event, it becomes the burden of the airline to pay the passenger for the lost items, depending on the jurisdiction and legal framework operating in the country.

Most a times, passengers disagree with the value of benefit paid after the loss and in most cases they discover that it was no fault of the airline but because they undervalued their luggage to avoid paying for excess.

 

What is the value of your luggage? Do you declare the real contents rather than just the weight? Have you stocked key valuables in your bag and think it does not matter? Are you one of those who play smart by not declaring? All of these have its bad sides.

Sunny Adeda, insurance experts said to enable airline passengers get compensation on loss of baggage, they should declare the contents of their bag at the point of checking in. “Most foreigners usually declare, but here in Nigeria and most other African countries they hardly declare and most a times lose important values and get little compensation.

Airbus Cover reports of state aid

Ray Conner, head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said subsidies or loans for a new airliner would breach World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

Airbus said it would not comment as it had not yet decided on a revamped A380.

 

The two aerospace giants were locked in years of litigation over accusations that each received state funding.

Network Rail faces regulator grilling over reliability

Train services run by Southern, Thameslink and ScotRail all missed punctuality targets, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said.

Network Rail maintains the rail system.

Rail passenger journeys have risen 59.1% since 2005, while freight is up 9.1%.

 

Passengers using Thameslink routes have had to deal with disruption caused by long-term work at London Bridge, while track and signalling failures have disrupted travellers on Southern lines.