> About Tidal Thames
   News

   Thames passenger
   growth targeted

> Tilbury handles largest
   cargo vessel

   Thames: The green
   motorway

> Safe and sound New
   Year's eve

   Britain and the sea,
   co-starring PLA pilot
   John Stafford

> New PLA Chief
   Executive

   PLA's new
   maintenance
   vessel under
   construction

> Historical landmark
   restoration takes off

   'Trekker' targets
    the Thames

   Mini firmly in the dock

> Annual rowing
   safety awards

   New pilot vessels

   Making waves

> OPDR arrives and
   expands at Tilbury

   Seal of approval
   for Thames

   Pilot Portable Unit

> Tall ships back
   on the Thames

   Oxford and
   Cambridge boat
   race

The PLA's new chief executive, Robin Mortimer joins on 1 March.
He will work as chief executive designate alongside current PLA chief executive, Richard Everitt through March, ahead of taking over formally from Richard at the start of April. Robin joins from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs where, as director, he directed the Major Infrastructure and Environment Unit and set up the

UK's Adapting to Climate Change Programme.

The Port of London Authority is having a new £6.9 million mooring maintenance vessel, London Titan, built at Portland port, Dorset yard of Manor Marine.

The unique vessel has been specially designed by UK-based naval architects MacDuff Ship Design, working in close collaboration with PLA marine engineers, masters and crews, to be able to:

lay buoys;
haul wreckage from the bottom
of the river;
support dive operations; and
undertake small plough
dredging operations.

To be able to work along virtually all of the PLA's 95-mile jurisdiction on the Thames, London Titan will be squat and shallow enough to negotiate bridges as far upriver as Richmond, and robust enough to operate in the outer estuary. The vessel will be more capable than the vessels it replaces – the 1960s built Hookness and Crossness. In normal operations the vessel will have a crew of five.

Manor Marine expects to launch London Titan in the spring and the PLA bring her into service on the Thames in the autumn, after final outfitting and sea trials.