Technology news – Page 110
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NewsHigh speed line maintenance software
FRANCE: CARL Software has won a contract to supply its CARL Source asset management software to the Mesea joint venture which will maintain the track, signalling and electrification on the 300 km Tours – Bordeaux LGV Sud Europe Atlantique high speed line which is under construction for opening in 2017. ...
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NewsAutonomous platform screen doors on Citybanan
SWEDEN: The two new underground stations being built as part of Stockholm’s Citybanan project are to be equipped with Gilgen Door Systems platform screen doors with ClearSy’s Coppilot autonomous control system. This uses sensors installed on the platform rather than equipment on the train, which ClearSy says is ideal ...
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NewsTank wagon coating trial
USA: Industrial Solutions USA has completed a 12-month trial of Nanovere Technologies’s Nano-Clear Industrial coating on GATX tank wagons. NCI is designed to penetrate into the pores of the paint, enhancing the underlying colour and improving UV, abrasion, corrosion and chemical resistance to extend the interval between repainting. NCI ...
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NewsSiemens opens signalling research centre
SPAIN: On April 27 King Felipe VI officially opened a signalling research and development centre at the headquarters of Siemens España, located in Tres Cantos to the north of Madrid. Employing 350 staff, the new global centre of competence for signalling and train control will channel an annual investment budget ...
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NewsSecond-generation depot personnel protection system launched
DEPOTS: Zonegreen has launched a second generation of its SMART Depot Personnel Protection System, which combines powered derailers, road-end control panels, train detection equipment, warning signals and personal datakeys to protect staff and infrastructure. DPSS is now widely used in the UK, and the second generation has been designed with ...
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NewsElectric Traction - Motive Power and Energy Supply
by Andreas Steimel BOOK REVIEW: This 400-page book is a compilation of lectures held at Ruhr-Universität Bochum over the past 20 years, and is intended for readers with a solid knowledge of electric motors and electronics. After a short historical review of electric traction and mechanical drives, the ...
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NewsPlatform edge Anywhere Door for multiple train types on test
JAPAN: Platform edge doors designed to accommodate multiple types of rolling stock with varying numbers of doors and locations on the car side are being tested by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Transportation Equipment Engineering & Service Co. The design is branded Dokodemo Door (‘Anywhere Door’), after a magical door which ...
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NewsTrainline launches Apple Watch app
UK: Ticket retailer Trainline has announced a mobile app for Apple Watch, which it says will provide a ‘convenient and innovative new way for customers to check live train times, platform information, check their train is on route and access mobile ticketing straight from their wrist.’ The Apple Watch ...
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NewsJapanese maglev testing tops 600 km/h
JAPAN: A new speed record for a magnetically levitated vehicle was set on April 21, when Central Japan Railway powered one of its Series L0 superconducting maglev units up to a maximum of 603 km/h on the test guideway in Yamanashi prefecture. According to JR Central, a speed of ...
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NewsHeathrow ‘smart screens’ compare rail and taxi travel options
UK: Screens have been installed in the baggage reclaim area at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 showing passengers live price and journey time comparisons between taxis and the Heathrow Express train service to London Paddington station. ‘The aim of the journey comparison generator is to enable Heathrow passengers to get ...
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NewsCross Track TV in Brisbane
AUSTRALIA: XTD says its Cross Track TV is the ‘first designed for rail, cross-track digital video system’. It uses billboard-size LED screens and high-definition sound to broadcast information and advertising to passengers waiting at stations. Following installations in Sydney and Melbourne, Cross Track TV is being installed in at four ...
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NewsX-ray backscatter looks deep inside sleepers
USA: Georgetown Rail Equipment Co and the University of Florida’s Nuclear Engineering Department have developed Aurora Xi, a method of using X-ray backscatter technology to look deep inside sleepers to reveal internal flaws which traditional inspections might not discover. As well as identifying decay in wooden sleepers and cracks in ...
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NewsTDSi signs railway security technology agreement in China
CHINA: UK-based security and access control system manufacturer TDSi has signed a five-year strategic co-operation agreement with China Rail Chen Bang Technology Ltd, which will see TDSi's technology used on rail and metro projects throughout China. TDSi produces systems including access control technology, biometric readers, CCTV and associated software. Managing ...
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NewsCutting edge technology
UK: Following two years of development, Terock Ltd has received Network Rail approval for its TRS330 rail shear, purpose-designed for cutting and clearing scrap rail. The road-rail vehicle mounted shear has a 1 000-tonne cutting force for breaking 65 kg/m rail quickly and efficiently, with 360° rotation which enables ...
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NewsPlasser & Theurer delivers ballast profilers
POLAND: Plasser & Theurer has supplied infrastructure manager PKP PLK with two USP 2010 SWS-U universal ballast distribution and profiling machines. The P-IC 2.0 Plasser Intelligent Control system offers a clear touch-screen menu with access to all machine functions from one place. The machines have a centre plough, shoulder ploughs ...
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NewsGE Transportation completes testing of Tier 4 engine
USA: GE Transportation announced on April 9 that it had completed production tests of an Evolution Series Tier 4 engine. This was the first engine to be put through a new test cell at the company’s engine plant in Grove City, Pennsylvania, and it will now be sent to an ...
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NewsRegional focus underpins YRP expansion
UK: Membership of the Young Rail Professionals networking and ambassadorial organisation has doubled in the past year to reach more than 2 000, Chairman Stephen Head told an audience of corporate supporters in Derby on March 31. Mounting concern over the rail industry’s ability to attract and retain the staff ...
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NewsAutomatic EMU inspection system in new maintenance contract
UK: National Express Group has awarded Bombardier Transportation a contract to maintain the 74 Bombardier Class 357 Electrostar EMUs operated under the Essex Thameside franchise, which is branded c2c. The current franchise began in November 2014 and runs for 15 years. Bombardier’s contract was announced on March 30. It runs ...
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NewsSiemens Convergence Creators opens telecoms test lab
CROATIA: Siemens has opened a Railway Telecommunications Test & Integration Laboratory in Zagreb. The facility contains various types of main line and urban rail telecoms infrastructure, which can be adjusted to assist with developing and testing equipment or used for customer demonstrations and training. The equipment includes GSM-R and ...
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NewsEuropean Commission launches investigation into proposed 520 km/h test track
SPAIN: The European Commission is to undertake an in-depth investigation into whether proposals for public funding of a planned high speed rail test centre near Málaga would be compatible with state aid rules. The Spanish government has proposed that the planned Centro de Ensayos de Alta Tecnología Ferroviaria would ...