Archive for March, 2007
March 30, 2007 at 6:40 pm · Filed under macroeconomy
Up to 400,000 people are facing delays in their salary payments because of a problem with an electronic banking system.
The Banks Automated Clearing System has been running slowly and has not sent out all payments in time.
The BACS is responsible for processing financial transactions.
A spokeswoman for payments association Apacs said affected workers should be paid by Monday.
Sandra Quinn said any customers who were concerned should contact their bank immediately.
Banks are trying to ensure direct debits are paid as usual although the transactions can be refused if it means an account becoming overdrawn.
Ms Quinn said there was no pattern to the glitch and any company that had been affected by the problem should have informed its employees.
She added employees would be refunded any charges if their accounts were overdrawn or if they breached their overdraft limit as a result of the problem.
She advised people who needed cash for the weekend to withdraw it over the counter, as cash machines could refuse the withdrawal.
“The entire banking and payments industry is extremely sorry that this has happened and we are working to resolve the issue and limit the impact on individual customers,” she said.
March 30, 2007 at 6:40 pm · Filed under macroeconomy
The Paddington disaster of October 1999 came in the middle of a spate of train crashes that cast a shadow over the early years of rail privatisation.
In August 1996, a passenger train travelling from Euston on the West Coast Main Line passed a signal at danger and collided with an empty coaching stock train near Watford Junction in Hertfordshire.
One person was killed and 69 were injured.
Then in September 1997, seven passengers were killed and 139 were injured when a Swansea-London Great Western train collided with a freight train after going through two danger signals at Southall in west London.
Within less than two years came the Paddington tragedy, when again the failure of a train to stop at danger signals led to a collision - this time with a packed London-bound passenger express.
This led to a determined effort by the rail industry to deal with the problem of signals passed at danger.
But it was a separate problem - the state of the track - that was the cause of the next serious accident, at Hatfield in October 2000.
Four passengers were killed when an East Coast Main Line GNER train from London to Leeds derailed just south of Hatfield station after passing over a broken rail.
This accident - although mercifully low in fatalities - had the biggest impact on the rail industry of any event in recent years.
Miles of track had to be checked, huge numbers of speed restrictions were imposed and train punctuality slumped. It would take years for trains-on-time figures to return to their pre-Hatfield levels.
Unhappily for GNER - which was blameless at Hatfield - another of its trains was involved in the collision with a train and a car-plus-trailer that got on to the track at Selby in Yorkshire in February 2001.
This crash, which was not the fault of the rail industry, claimed 10 lives.
Network Rail (NR) had taken over from Railtrack by the time of the May 2002 Potters Bar disaster, where a faulty set of points caused a West Anglia Great Northern train travelling from London to Kings Lynn to derail.
Six passengers and a pedestrian hit by falling debris were killed and 76 injured.
A private company - Jarvis - had been responsible for the maintenance of this section of track. Eventually, NR was to take all track maintenance work back “in house”.
Events in at Grayrigg in Cumbria last month with the crash of a Virgin Pendolino train were eerily similar to those at Hatfield, with parts of the points missing, a question mark over maintenance and a train coming off the tracks.
Apart from level crossing incidents, this was the first serious passenger accident on the tracks for almost five years.
March 30, 2007 at 6:40 pm · Filed under macroeconomy
Broadcaster ITV has won the television rights to the FA Cup.
FA chief executive Brian Barwick said he was “delighted” after ITV paid 425m to show the competition over four years, in partnership with Setanta Sports.
The deal, due to begin from August next year, also includes England’s home qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup.
Equivalent to some 100m-a-year, it leaves the BBC with no live football outside major international tournaments.
It is being seen as a coup for Michael Grade, the new ITV chairman after the BBC and Sky held the rights for the last seven years.
Mr Grade said: “Our position is now substantially enhanced as the leading terrestrial free-to-air sports broadcaster.
“The FA has run an intense bidding process and we are delighted to be the winners with Setanta. It is a great deal for all of us.”
The deal places a question mark over the BBC’s ability to hold on to some of its top presenting talent.
With virtually no live matches to front it could struggle to keep the likes of Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen.
Football is currently being flooded with cash as broadcasters compete for audiences.
Last year, the Premier League sold a three-year rights package for 2.1bn, an increase of 605m on the previous deal.
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