Technology news – Page 109
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NewsFlexible mobile phone tickets on test
UK: Mobile phone tickets valid on services operated by multiple train operators are being piloted in two separate areas covering 86 stations in northern England. Previous m-Ticket products were limited to specific services, but those on trial are available for travel on any CrossCountry, First TransPennine Express, Northern, Virgin ...
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NewsRoad-rail crane trucks simplify maintenance planning
UK: Network Rail has commissioned a fleet of 20 all-wheel drive FUSO Canter trucks adapted for road road-rail use with the addition of hydraulically lowered and raised rail wheels. The infrastructure manager previously relied on a combination of standard road vehicles and hired-in rail vehicles. The Canters can perform both ...
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NewsRigid overhead installed in UK tunnel
UK: Furrer+Frey’s Rigid Overhead Conductor Rail System has been installed in UK for the first time, to support the testing of Hitachi IEP trainsets through the 1·2 km Stanton tunnel which forms part of the Old Dalby test track. ROCS uses a rigid bar rather than tensioned overhead line, which ...
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NewsEU to revise ERTMS deployment plan
EUROPE: Speaking at Unife's 2015 General Assembly in Bucuresti on June 18, European Co-ordinator Karel Vinck announced an update of the ERTMS deployment plan. Conceding that insufficient information had been available when the plan was adopted on July 22 2009, he reported that the European Commission had now agreed to ...
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NewsTurkish locomotive developed with domestic technology
TURKEY: Tülomsaş has rolled out a prototype electric locomotive designed and manufactured using Turkish technology. Intended for shunting and short-distance light freight duties, the E1000 is a single-cab Bo-Bo rated at 1 MW. It has been produced in partnership with research agency Tubitak and national railway TCDD under a ...
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NewsVoith replaces Irish DMU fairings
IRELAND: Voith is delivering 70 sets of aluminium fairings it has custom designed to replace glass fibre reinforced plastic components on the front ends of Iarnród Éireann’s Hyundai Rotem Class 22000 inter-city diesel multiple-units. The GFRP fairings were designed to protect the train from bottles, stones or other foreign ...
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NewsATO to boost capacity on Paris RER Line A
FRANCE: Alstom Transport has been selected to develop and install automatic train operation on Paris RER Line A under a €20m contract awarded by city transport operator RATP, the Ile-de-France region and transport authority STIF. The introduction of attended ATO that meets Grade of Automation 2 is expected to improve ...
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Metro Report InternationalATO to boost capacity on Paris RER Line A
FRANCE: Alstom Transport has been selected to develop and install automatic train operation on Paris RER Line A under a €20m contract awarded by city transport operator RATP, the Ile-de-France region and transport authority STIF. The introduction of attended ATO that meets Grade of Automation 2 is expected to improve ...
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NewsJR West picks MerMec inspection technology
JAPAN: West Japan Railway Company has selected MerMec to supply machine-vision technology for its track inspection fleet, the railway’s General Manager Eiji Tsubone announced at a meeting of the EU-Japan Industrial Dialogue on Railways & Urban Transport Suppliers in Brussels on May 21. Following ‘a long tendering and evaluation period’, ...
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NewsAvoid blockages
TOILET: TBM Rail has developed a gravity-fed toilet designed to minimise blockages. Managing Director Andrew Hawker says that while gravity-fed designs are ‘often the simplest and smallest-footprint option’, they ‘have become infamous for blockages and resulting servicing problems’. ‘A number of companies shared with us data on service levels, ...
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NewsMaintaining locos with augmented reality
EUROPE: The Services division of Siemens is trialling the use of augmented reality on tablet computers to support the maintenance of Vectron locomotives. Siemens staff the Transport Logistic exhibition in München demonstrated how augmented reality could assist staff working on a locomotive at a remote location. Technicians arriving by road ...
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NewsPTC installation by December ‘not possible’, warns APTA
USA: The requirement to install Positive Train Control on all commuter routes by December 31 2015 under the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 ‘was never a realistic deadline set by Congress’ and ‘is not possible’, American Public Transportation Association President & CEO Michael Melaniphy said in a statement issued ...
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NewsCSR and universities to establish UK rail research centre
UK: High speed train builder CSR Qingdao Sifang is to establish a centre for railway research and development in the UK under a series of co-operation agreements signed with three British universities during the Railtex 2015 exhibition in Birmingham on May 12. To be developed by CSR Sifang in co-operation ...
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NewsRailtex 2015 attracts international attention
Focused on multi-disciplinary railway technology, the biennial Railtex exhibition takes place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham on May 12-14.
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NewsProducts & Technology in Brief
Moxa has released TAP-6226, an all-in-one wireless unit integrating two access points, a managed fibre switch and a wide-range of AC/DC power supplies to provide reliable train-to-ground communications. Featuring IP68 housing and shock- and vibration-proof M12 connectors, it is specially designed for the railway environment. Moxa´s controller-based Turbo Roaming supports ...
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NewsSydney Trains sets Mousetrap to catch vandals
AUSTRALIA: Sydney Trains is testing Mousetrap, an electronic sensor which can detect vapour from spray paint and permanent marker pens to provide a real-time alert when a graffiti attack is underway. Live CCTV images are streamed to control staff, and police officers can be dispatched to catch the vandals. An ...
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NewsLighthouse railway research projects launched
EUROPE: The first three railway research and development projects to be funded from the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme were officially launched in Brussels on May 7. Selected by the European Commission following the first 'Mobility for Growth' call for proposals, the so-called lighthouse projects are intended to bridge the ...
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NewsAxle earthing units
EARTHING: Morgan Advanced Materials has launched a new design of axle earthing unit, which it says reduces movement between the brush box and shaft, improves brush-shaft contact and offers better system performance and lower maintenance costs. The company says the problems caused by electrical currents damaging axlebox roller bearings ...
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NewsHopperPopper helps unload wagons
FREIGHT: The HopperPopper from Pneumat Systems assists in the unloading of dried grains and meal products from wagons by combining compressed air blast technology with precise hydraulic controls. The wirelessly controlled HopperPopper allows operators to position a hydraulically- driven blast probe in the hopper compartment, blasting out bulk ...
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NewsHybrid drive demonstrates 15% fuel saving
ENGINE: A 15% reduction in fuel consumption compared to a conventional diesel multiple-unit was achieved by Deutsche Bahn’s VT642 test DMU when MTU undertook trials with a hybrid version of its PowerPack. MTU’s PowerPacks combine a DMU engine with electric, mechanical or hydraulic transmission, after-treatment, auxiliaries and cooling systems into ...