Technology news – Page 88
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Metro Report InternationalMarseille metro calls automation tenders
FRANCE: Suppliers have until February 13 2018 to submit bids to the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence for a fleet of driverless trains and related automation equipment to be operated by Régie de Transports de Marseille. Tenders for the Nouveau Metro de Marseille (Neomma) project cover renewal of the existing rolling stock ...
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NewsShift2Rail issues 2018 call for proposals
EUROPE: The Shift2Rail joint undertaking formed to promote strategic research and innovation in the European rail sector has published its 2018 call for proposals, based on its amended Annual Work Plan 2018. The call for proposals covers 18 topics, of which seven are open to Shift2Rail joint undertaking members and ...
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Metro Report InternationalDriverless buses to be tested in Singapore
SINGAPORE: Volvo Buses and Nanyang Technological University announced on January 11 that they had signed a co-operation agreement for a two-year driverless bus research project. Two Volvo 7900 Electric 12 m long buses are to be used, with proof-of-concept trials taking place in Sweden, before the buses arrive in ...
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Metro Report InternationalCRRC unveils carbon fibre metro car bodyshell
CHINA: CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co unveiled a prototype of what it says is the world’s first carbon fibre metro car bodyshell on January 7. The manufacturer says that the composite materials used allow the car to be 35% lighter than the average metal body bodied metro car, which ...
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NewsPassenger LNG trial starts
SPAIN: Development Minister Íñigo de la Serna joined Energy Minister Álvaro Nadal on January 8 to mark the start of what is claimed to be the first trial of liquefied natural gas as a fuel for passenger rail traction, being undertaken by national operator RENFE in conjunction with Bureau Veritas ...
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Metro Report InternationalOslo electric bus pilot begins
NORWAY: December marked the start of a two-year electric bus pilot project in Oslo, involving three operators running a total of six electric buses. The total cost of the pilot is NKr43m. Nobina is operating two 18 m long articulated buses supplied by BYD on routes 31 and 31E, ...
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Metro Report InternationalBarcelona tests vertical platform screen doors
SPAIN: Barcelona public transport operator TMB is to undertake what it says will be the first test of vertical platform screen doors on a metro network, with doors supplied by STraffic of South Korea to be installed at Can Cuiàs station on Line 11 during the second half of 2018. ...
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NewsRail-specification ball valves developed
VALVES: IMI Precision Engineering has developed a range of robust ball valves specially designed to meet rolling stock standards and to offer consistency across a temperature range between -40°C and +85°C. The range includes lever, latching or locking handles for on-board applications including door and step systems and wagon controls. ...
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Metro Report InternationalHesop reversible substation introduced to Milano metro
ITALY: Milano transport operator ATM has put into service a reversible substation at Rogoredo station on metro line M3. Alstom has supplied a 1·5 kV 4 MW Hesop substation. This becomes the second Hesop substation in commercial operation on a metro line, following a 600 V 1 MW substation ...
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NewsLighter and safer seats
SEATS: Commuters at opposite sides of the USA are now sitting on BASF’s Basotect open cell melamine foam, which Rogers Corp is using in BART and Long Island Rail Road seat cushions. According to BASF, the foam’s density of less than 9 kg/m3 helps reduce the overall weight of seats, ...
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NewsAmtrak launches New York Penn navigation app
USA: Amtrak has launched FindYourWay, an iOS and Android app based on the Zyter platform which uses more than 400 beacons inside New York Penn station to provide real-time gate, train and boarding information as well as directions to gates, exits, cash machines and restaurants. The beacons use Bluetooth Low ...
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NewsMachine learning to customise journey planning
UK: The University of Surrey has been awarded £230 000 from the Department for Transport through Innovate UK to create an onward journey planning assistant which would learn a user’s needs to enable it to offer tailored real-time alternative routes in the event of a delay to a journey. ...
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NewsRoad-rail vehicles eliminate manual handling during electrification installation
UK: Keltbray Aspire has worked with SRS Sjölanders to develop six mobile elevating work platform road-rail vehicles for use when installing overhead line electrification. Kelbray said the machines acquired at cost of more than £3m are a ‘UK first’. In addition to the 12 m reach, 500 kg mobile basket ...
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NewsVirtual ticket agents aim to boost ticket machine use
UK: Greater Anglia says its is the first train operator in England to roll out Scheidt & Bachmann’s FareGo ViTA ‘virtual ticket agents’ across its ticket machines, enabling passengers who have a query to press a button to contact staff via a two-way audio link. The 196 Scheidt & Bachmann ...
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Metro Report InternationalSt Petersburg inaugurates partly off-wire trolleybus route
RUSSIA: St Petersburg’s first trolleybus route to have wire-free sections operated using battery power was inaugurated on December 12. Route 23 has been extended eastwards from its previous southern terminus to serve Bogatyrsky Prospect and adjacent streets, which currently have no wires. More than half of the 14 km route ...
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NewsVoith and Liebherr announce diesel engine partnership
ENGINES: A ‘co-operative partnership’ for the development, distribution and servicing of diesel engines for rail applications was announced by Voith and Liebherr on December 13. Liebherr is to supply several versions of its basic six-cylinder inline engine in the 500 kW class as well as components for exhaust gas after-treatment. ...
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NewsWabtec awarded Santos yard control contract
BRAZIL: Freight operator RUMO has awarded Wabtec Corp a US$5m contract to design, install and commission a train management and dispatching system to improve safety and efficiency at its yard serving the port of Santos. The scope includes signalling and interlocking integration and staff training. Completion is planned the end ...
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NewsNorfolk Southern opens replacement Portageville Bridge
USA: Norfolk Southern has opened the new Portageville Bridge, a 294 m long steel arch span across the 72 m deep Genesee River gorge in Letchworth State Park on its Southern Tier Line in New York state. The structure replaces an iron truss bridge built by the Erie Railroad in ...
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NewsGE to install Trip Optimizer on KTZ Evolution locomotive fleet
KAZAKHSTAN: National railway KTZ’s freight business has signed an agreement to deploy GE’s Trip Optimizer efficiency system on its fleet of TE33A Evolution Series diesel locomotives. The agreement announced on December 11 builds on a memorandum of understanding signed in June under which KTZ and GE Transportation agreed to explore ...
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NewsSNCF orders prototype EMU and tram-train traction transformers
FRANCE: National railway SNCF has awarded Mitsubishi Electric Corp a contract to supply prototype traction transformers for Z2N double-deck electric multiple-units used on Paris commuter services and Siemens Avanto tram-trains operating on route T4. The order follows on from Mitsubishi Electric becoming the first Japanese company to be certified by ...