Technology, data and business – Page 38
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Metro Report InternationalSeattle light rail renewable energy agreement signed
USA: Sound Transit has entered into a 10-year agreement with Puget Sound Energy enabling the transport authority to purchase wind-generated energy directly. It hopes to use only renewable energy to power its light rail network from 2019. Through its 2015 Sustainability Plan and Sound Transit 3 network expansion project, ...
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Metro Report InternationalUsing mobile data to analyse transport flows
UK: A project to use mobile phone network data to analyse transport and traffic flows will be tested in a commercial environment as part of a government-sponsored competition. Innovate UK is to provide a grant to cover the proposed project cost of £1·2m. Citi Logik is working with Vodafone ...
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Metro Report InternationalLondon Underground data transmission contract awarded
UK: London Underground has awarded Finnish company EKE-Electronics a €20m contract to replace the data transmission system on the Central Line train fleet. Announcing the award on April 18, EKE-Electronics said that it had beaten three other shortlisted bidders. EKE-Electronics will supply train computers, unit computers, I/O modules and ...
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Metro Report InternationalBattery energy storage to lower light rail energy cost
CANADA: Toronto Hydro is to provide a battery energy storage system capable of providing the future Eglinton Crosstown light rail line with back-up and emergency power for up to 4 h in the event of a widespread power outage. It will also store energy generated during night time off-peak ...
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Metro Report InternationalDriverless shuttle on test in London
UK: Passenger-carrying trials of a driverless electric shuttle prototype began on April 5 on a 2 km route on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. The focus is not the technology, but on how it functions alongside people in a natural environment. The initial trial will explore passengers’ attitude towards ...
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Metro Report InternationalArlington to trial driverless shuttles
USA: The city council of Arlington, Texas, approved a one-year leasing agreement with EasyMile on March 28 for the use of two EZ10 driverless shuttles. These will be used in a pilot project in the city’s Entertainment District, which could start as early as June. ‘The city ...
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Metro Report InternationalRhein-Ruhr ticketing contract awarded
GERMANY: Following a European tender, Rhein-Ruhr transport authority VRR has awarded Transdev a contract to manage its ticket distribution systems for 11 years from December 1 2019, when the current contract held by Deutsche Bahn ends. The public transport services covered carry around 4 million passengers on ...
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Metro Report InternationalFreiburg offers electric cargo bike hire
GERMANY: Freiburg public transport operator VAG and the Südbaden branch of motoring association ADAC have added two electric cargo bikes to the city’s existing cargo bike hire offering. The city’s free LastenVelo Freiburg cargo bike hire service already has three three-wheel and two two-wheel conventional cargo cycles. ...
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Metro Report InternationalCRRC begins construction of Chicago factory
USA: CRRC Sifang America held a groundbreaking ceremony for its rolling stock assembly plant in Chicago on March 16. CRRC intends the 35 390 m2 factory in the Hegewisch district of southeast Chicago to become its North American assembly hub. Chicago Transit Authority awarded CRRC Sifang a framework contract ...
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Metro Report InternationalTaking a regional approach to journey planning
FRANCE: The Syndicat Mixte Intermodal Régional de Transports grouping of transport authorities in northern France has become the first organisation to deploy Conduent’s Mobility Companion Platform. The journey planner aims to simplify and encourage the use of public transport across the region. The passpass.fr website enables door-to-door ...
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Metro Report InternationalBART analyses results of crowd-reduction trial
USA: BART and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority have released preliminary results of the BART Perks pilot, which rewarded passengers who travel outside the morning peak with cash rewards. The six-month trial ran from August 30 to February 28. Inspired by a similar project launched in ...
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Metro Report InternationalAlstom and NTL launch Aptis electric bus prototype
FRANCE: Alstom and NTL presented a prototype of the Aptis electric bus at NTL’s factory in Duppigheim in eastern France on March 9. Alstom says that the vehicle is based on a tram design, with roof-mounted equipment and a mostly low floor. The vehicle is 12 m long, 2 ...
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Metro Report InternationalFoshan hydrogen fuel cell tram contract signed
CHINA: CRRC Qingdao Sifang is to supply eight hydrogen fuel cell trams for a route being developed in Foshan, the supplier announced on March 9. Each tram will have capacity for 285 passengers and a maximum speed of 70 km/h. They will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells developed ...
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Metro Report InternationalLondon creates its first low-emission bus zone
UK: The first of 12 low-emission bus zones planned for London’s most polluted streets started operating on March 9. The zone in the southwestern district of Putney will only permit buses achieving strict Euro-6 emissions standards to operate across the seven routes that pass through it. This ...
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Metro Report InternationalKeeping up with ticketing technology
As transport ticketing technology moves ahead at a rapid pace, what are the similarities and differences in cities around the world?
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Metro Report InternationalSingapore seeks drone inspection partners
SINGAPORE: Land Transport Authority has issued a request for information seeking the industry’s participation in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to inspect metro tunnels. Planned automated tunnel inspection trials would include 360° video mapping and the use of software to automatically detect defects from the video taken and ...
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Metro Report InternationalSingapore contactless ticketing pilot to begin in March
SINGAPORE: Land Transport Authority and Mastercard will launch an account-based fare payment pilot on March 20. This will allow passengers to use contactless credit and debit cards for fare payments on the metro and buses. LTA and Mastercard signed a partnership agreement for the pilot last year, ...
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Metro Report InternationalLondon’s contactless payment goes global
CONTACTLESS: Cubic Transportation Systems ‘inevitably learned a lot about the processes of the payment industry’ through working with Transport for London on the roll-out of contactless payment, John Hill, Managing Director Europe, told Metro Report International at the Transport Ticketing Global 2017 conference, and such experience means ...
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Metro Report InternationalTransdev signs driverless car agreement with Renault-Nissan
INTERNATIONAL: Transdev and the Renault-Nissan Alliance signed a research agreement on February 27 to jointly develop a mobility services system for self-driving road vehicles. The transport operator and vehicle manufacturer will explore the development of ‘mobility services’ using fleets of electric driverless road vehicles for traditional public ...
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Metro Report InternationalSmart card testing simulator to be launched
SMART CARD: Later this year Austrian company Arsenal Testhouse is to launch a software-based simulator which will enable the functionality of smart cards and other payment systems to be tested to see whether a new product would be likely to pass formal validation against technical standards. While ...