10/01/2018 London News

reminder for tomorrow morning of

some dense fog around.

Welcome to BBC London News.

I'm Katharine Carpenter.

The Transport Secretary has

apologised to train passengers

using Southern and Thameslink

services for delays

and cancellations.

He was responding to a report

which says they have suffered

the worst disruption of any

franchise, one which has NOT

provided value for money.

Here's our transport

correspondent Tom Edwards.

Unreliable, not value for money, the

worst service in the country. It

won't surprise many passengers that

today more damning evidence on

Goveia Thameslink. Blighted by

industrial action and a lack of

understanding from Government, at

its worst, only two thirds of trains

arrived on time.

A shabby train

service. ? The franchise covers

Thameslink, southern and great

northern services and today's report

outlines how 60% of delays have been

due to the operator mainly because

of industrial action, and a lack of

crew. Nearly 40% of delays are down

to Network Rail's poor

infrastructure. I think from a

passenger's point of view, what they

don't want to hear is people passing

the buck and saying it is someone

else's fall. What they want to know

is that action is being taken to

sort this out, and to make sure that

they see improvements in service.

The report also criticises the

Government, for trying to increase

services, as well as introducing new

trains and getting rid of the

guards, leading to strikes. The

report says the Government didn't

know about a lack of drivers, or the

state of the infrastructure.

I think

this report shows the incompetence

and the dogma of the DLT and the

Government and seeking to put the

blame on the trade unions when they

knew they were going to cause this

issue is a false premise and seeking

to blame the companies who are

forced to bid for what they put out

there is a false premise. If this is

dogma, the dogma has to change.

The

Government says unions are main

cause of the problems. .

When I took

over as Secretary of State I was

clear in saying the situation on

southern was unacceptable, the

service level was terrible and we

had to sort it out. There was there

were a number of things we did.

Things have got better we changed

the way the railway operates on

day-to-day basis, we are spending

money on the infrastructure. The

report I I commissioned said very

clearly, that it was the unions who

were primarily to blame.

The report

does say reliability on the services

is improving, but it wants the

Government to learn lessons, when it

sets up other franchises.

when it sets up other franchises.

Around 200 people have been

evacuated from their homes

in Westminster because of a gas

leak. Many spent last night

in hotels but the cause

of the leak still isn't known.

Westminster City Council has set up

a rest centre in a nearby sports

centre and residents

are being escorted back to their

homes to pick up belongings.

A number of streets around

Horseferry Road remain cordoned off.

People in Essex will find out later

whether a controversial merger

of three hospital trusts

will go ahead.

Managers from Southend,

Basildon and Broomfield Hospitals

are meeting expected to approve

the plan at a meeting

This meeting is due to start in

round half an hour's time. The

recommendation will be put to the

trust board that the three hospitals

should merge. So what does that

mean? Well, it means the trust could

have a new name, it will have one

budget instead of three, and staff

and patients could have to move

between hospital, that is something

that campaigners are worried about.

One of the main concerns is if with

have one hospital with three site it

is easier for the hospital to

transfer departments away from one

site, we may find ourself in a

situation where we haven't got an

A&E 24/7 at one or more of the

hospitals that can take blue light

ambulance emergencies.

Together the

trusts are losing round 49 million a

year, that is round 100,000 a day,

it is argued that something needs to

be done. The hospitals say by

reducing costs they can re-invest

the money. We asked these people

what they think.

Can't think it makes a big problem,

apart from transport for people

between the hospitals. I have had

difficulty getting here today,

because two buses have been taken

off.

It is busy enough. There is too

much, without joining two other

hospitals and sending more patients.

Depends how they merge them. If it

means we don't get the number of

departments here, that would be not

so good. This is not the only merger

going on, Ipswich and Colchester

hospitals are joining together and

the mental Health Trust in Essex

have also merged but a survey by

Bristol University looked at 102

hospital mergers and found waiting

times and deficits increased. So

staff here are hoping with better

planning this will be more

successful.

successful.

A bit of London history

was recreated today at St Pancras,

as part of the station's

150th anniversary celebrations.

A Young's brewery horse-drawn dray

took us back to 1868

when the station got its reputation

for being 'built on beer'.

Jim Wheble has more.

Often when we go to a train

station we just see it

as place to go from A to B,

but the history involved

as a place to go from A to B,

but the history involved

in somewhere like St Pancras

is absolutely incredible.

And to mark their 150th anniversary

today, there is a rather

large clue behind me

as to what was the foundation

of this station.

I am with Josie Murray,

the senior heritage adviser

here at St Pancras,

what is this clue?

It relates to the fact that in

effect St Pancras was built on beer.

The ground level, the undercroft

where the shops are today

and the arcade, was a massive beer

storage warehouse for beers brought

down on the Midland railway line

from Burton on Trent.

And that introduced

bitter to London.

That is right.

It was at the time people mostly

drank stout, heavy beers,

whereas the Burton beers were much

lighter, the IPA, and Bass

were one of the first Burton

brewers to transport that.

Hence the horse and cart,

which would have taken it

to the pubs and places

all round where it

would have been drunk.

I suppose when we talk

about St Pancras, we must talk

about Sir John Betjeman,

at the end of the 60s,

because a lot of people say

if it wasn't for him,

perhaps this place wouldn't

be here right now.

Absolutely right.

We owe him and all those other

passionate people who cared deeply

for St Pancras a great debt

that they saved it from demolition.

Thank you very much Josie.

If you want to sample a bit

of St Pancras's history,

they have a special 150th

anniversary IPA, which you can have

in the pub next to me.

Now let's check on the weather

with Kate Kinsella.

Good afternoon. We have had calm of

days of very grey skies, we started

the day in a similar fashion. But

fairly south-westerly especially for

parts of south London, west London

we started to see just a bit of blue

sky appearing, an this afternoon, we

can expect more of it. The cloud,

the rain the drizzle from earlier is

moving northwards so we should see

sunny spells. So, sunny spell, the

wind fairly light as well. As a

result, the temperature is just a

bit milder. We are looking at a

maximum later on, nine, maybe 10C by

the end of the afternoon. Overnight

tonight I am afraid this cloud of

rain is likely to sink back south.

Notice this yellow triangle. The Met

Office has a weather warning.

Anywhere could see a bit of mist and

Fognini and it is going to be

stubborn, the minimum temperature

between two and four, so a misty

murky start tomorrow, so that is

going to linger in the west. When it

lifts it will be into cloud. So

another grey day, we are back to

that maximum temperature. Further

through the week into Friday,

similar condition, overnight mist

and fog likely to develop and a

murky start for Friday morning, but

we are hanging on to the cloud for

the next few days and also the

temperatures. Night I some time

temperatures staying above zero.

That's about it from me.

Riz Lateef will be here

with our 6:30 evening programme.

But for now, from us all,

a very good afternoon.