JAPAN: East Japan Railway has announced the results of its experiments with a 6 m² piezoelectric floor covering, which was fitted at the ticket gates of a Tokyo station where it used the movement of passengers to generate electricity.
It worked, but only just. Production peaked at 10 kW-sec a day - equivalent to lighting a 100 W bulb for 100 sec - but the output decreased after three weeks and 800?000 passengers due to the degradation of the piezoelectric elements.
This week’s round-up of business news from the UK railway industry
GERMANY: Hopes that the flow of investment in the Deutsche Bahn network would lead to a rapid improvement in operational and financial performance were dashed on July 25 when DB published its half-year results. One highlight was a 4∙9% rise in the total number of passengers ...
USA: Amtrak has appointed a joint venture of Skanska and E-J Electric Installation Co to undertake the East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project to modernise the four bores connecting New York Penn Station with Queens. Two of the four single-track tubes require significant repairs to damage caused ...
