Heidi Alexander

And we begin with some curious news about Bradford's proposed new railway station.

Last week, Secretary of State Heidi Alexander visited the city to announce this new station.

But what did she actually announce? Because she created as many questions as answers.

Richard, we've all been scratching our heads here.

Because at the moment, to get from Bradford to Huddersfield, you have to do this lazy S through Halifax, whatever, whereas it will need some new infrastructure in order to speed up journey times to Manchester, I think for sure.

I should say he was making those comments in the Yorkshire Post, and the Yorkshire Post and the Bradford Telegraph and Argus are both excellent local papers who actually covered this very well, I think.

So, you know, when Heidi Alexander was asked about this, she said the announcement was a good day for Bradford, but acknowledged that more work needs to be done to determine if this new station is a through station, the option preferred by local leaders, or remains a terminus or turnback station.

And she said the weirdest thing, she said, she's quoted in the Yorkshire Post as saying, it might be that new viaducts need to be built.

He talked about in his conference speech about, we're going to threaten badly behaved water companies with public ownership.

How are you going to do that when the ONS says you can't use that stick? I think Heidi Alexander spoke about we might consider renationalizing the rolling stock companies who are charging rip-off leasing costs to the train operators, increasingly nationalized train operators.

Again, that's not going to be possible.

GB Grid is only having funding reallocated from GB Energy.

And that's just really off-putting to people because one of the principal reasons of going electric, you know that, I know that, is to save money.

Now... clobbering people on public charge and we we know that that's another one that the what's the name of the new chancellor john john healy john healy that's that's it um you know um that's something that he should address tomorrow um but we'll see but maybe maybe this is sort of behind the scenes stuff that burnham's been talking about with healy heidi alexander so on and so forth and then uh some good news will hopefully come out of it tomorrow

I mean, one good thing that did come out last week was the changes to the MPPPF, the National Policy Planning Framework, which actually allows the channels to be dug and easier infrastructures to be set and stuff like that.

So, you know, charging...

I'm not entirely sure

I'm on the same page with that.

Heidi Alexander is pitching herself as an honest broker because she actually wants the target to go from 80% to 60% because that 10% is really important.

However, the energy space with the rechargeable torch being borne by Miliband actually doesn't want any changes.

Yeah, she did.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander gave a keynote where she really leaned into the economic case for expansion, saying a third Heathrow runway could unlock serious jobs, regional growth and investment.

She made clear, though, that the government is still weighing up all the final consultation details before making the final call.

Thanks, Joe.

More than 1,000 wheelchairs were damaged during air travel in 2024 alone.

equivalent to more than 80 every month for people who rely on their wheelchairs for everyday mobility damage can have serious consequences potentially affecting their independence disrupting holidays and business trips and leaving them waiting for specialist repairs the latest improvements have been coordinated through the aviation accessibility implementation group a cross-industry initiative established by the department for transport to improve the experience of passengers with reduced mobility and other accessibility requirements Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the measures were intended to give disabled passengers greater confidence when flying, including reassurance that their mobility equipment will be handled carefully and that appropriate assistance would be available throughout their journey.

The programme brings together airlines, airports, accessibility specialists and other industry organisations to address barriers from the initial stages of booking through to arrival at the destination.

A standardised form introduced in March 2026 allows passengers to share information about their wheelchairs before travelling, including battery specification and handling requirements.