News

A joint venture team of Fluor and Walsh Construction has been chosen as the preferred partner for phase one of the Red and Purple Line modernisation programme in Chicago. The Chicago Transit Authority is behind the $2.1 billion project, which is expected to improve infrastructure across both lines. The scope of the contract includes the development of new elevated tracks along a 1.9-mile section – featuring new bridges, support structures and existing tracks. Also, 3.2 miles of the signal system will be

More leading ITS innovators have been confirmed as speakers at ITS International’s fourth MaaS Market conference in London, UK, on March 20-21, 2019. Among them is Jacob Bangsgaard, CEO of European association Ertico and president of the MaaS Alliance, the public-private partnership working to create the foundations for a common European approach to Mobility as a Service (MaaS). From the UK, Paul Campion, CEO of Transport Systems Catapult and Chris Lane, head of smart travel from Transport for West Midlan

Enterprise CarShare has launched a short-term car rental service aimed at University of Delaware (UD) students and staff. Delaware is the latest campus to sign up for the service, which targets people who typically need a vehicle for just a few hours. Richard Rind, UD’s director of auxiliary services, says: “Many UD students and community members don’t have access to a car to take them where they need to go.” The service, part of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, will initially cost UD members $5 per hour which in

Keolis Canada has ordered 12 electric Type C all-electric school buses from Lion Electric to transport hundreds of children in the Lanaudière region, Quebec. The fleet will operate alongside two other Type C e-buses which Keolis ordered in 2016. Overall, the service is expected to transport 700 school students as of 2019. A survey from Lion shows that public opinion is behind the move - more than 90% of the 907 respondents say they want schools and boards to promote the use of electric buses. Other fin

Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, has opened the first tunnel in a planned network under Los Angeles to help ease congestion in the US city. The world’s media was invited this week to travel in the mile-long tunnel – built by Musk’s Boring Company under the Hawthorne district - in an electric Tesla vehicle. The trip was described as “almost a white knuckle ride” by the BBC: “A bumpy two-minute journey in a modified Model X through a concrete tunnel with a blue neon light in the ceiling.” A C

Aptiv has opened a technical centre in Las Vegas, US, to gather insights on its fleet of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and to improve safety operator training. Aptiv says its AVs are supporting more than 1,600 destinations across Clark County and the city, including entertainment venues such as the Las Vegas Convention Center and City Hall. In May, Aptiv launched 30 AVs in the city to pick up riders using Lyft’s app and network. The new, 130,000 square-foot technical centre will facilitate vehicle opera

Conduent Transportation is to install a fare collection system in the Flanders region of Belgium which will enable contactless bank card payments and account-based ticketing. Conduent will also operate the system for ten years on behalf of Flemish transport company De Lijn. Commuters will be able to use bank cards based on cEMV (contactless Europay, MasterCard and Visa) or use a contactless public operator payment card by the end of 2019. An aggregated payment method which accumulates transactions over t

Here Technologies’ location platform is being used by Motion Auto to deliver user-based insurance policies to its customers. The platform will provide the insurer with information on speed limits and rules of the road as well as measurements of the road surface condition and variable data such as traffic conditions. Daniel Weisman, co-founder of Motion Auto, says Here will help the company understand the behaviour of customers and their relationships to routes, road conditions and traffic. Here’s ma

Engie and its engineering subsidiary Tractebel have installed a compressed natural gas (CNG) station in Ivory Coast, a country in West Africa, to refuel 50 buses. The station has been built as part of the Ivorian government’s commitment to the Paris COP 21 agreement to reduce emissions. Engie’s CNG fuelling station is located at transport company Société des Transports Abidjanais’ (SOTRA) premises in Yopougon, a suburb within the city of Abidjan. Once fully commissioned, it is anticipated to have a

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has approved a statewide regulation which will require public transit agencies to gradually transition to fully zero emission buses by 2040. The Clean Transit regulation is expected to help transit agencies reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 19 million metric tonnes, nitrogen oxides by 7,000 tonnes and particulate matter by 40 tonnes from 2020 to 2050. CARB says the regulation will improve air quality, especially in low-income communities. It could also help

Tolling specialist Q-Free has withdrawn from a tender process for an electronic road pricing (ERP) system in Jakarta, Indonesia, due to uncertainty on the tender timeline and outcome. This withdrawal decision is also based on uncertainty regarding project structure and financing and expected project profitability. The company says it intends to increase recurring revenues and reduce its reliance on single large projects, and will be more selective when it comes to which contracts it pursues. The

Uber has launched its Uber Bus service in Egypt as part of a strategy to provide commuters living in Cairo with an affordable transportation option. The service can be accessed via Uber’s standard app. Uber groups passengers travelling in the same direction to make the service more affordable and reduce the number of stops per trip. Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO, says: “We are committed to broadening access to the Uber platform with a range of low-cost options that will move more people around town an

Cohda Wireless has become the latest technology firm to get involved in the Ipswich Connected Vehicle Pilot in Queensland, Australia. The trial aims to allow 500 participating vehicles to communicate with roadside cooperative ITS (C-ITS) devices – and Cohda is to deploy on-board units (OBUs). Last week, Kapsch confirmed it is to deliver 30 roadside C-ITS devices for the trial, which is led by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. Cohda’s OBUs are expected to exchange data at high s

Kapsch TrafficCom Australia is to deliver a tolling roadside system for two projects in Melbourne and Sydney for a combined value of AUD$30 million (£17m). In Melbourne, Kapsch’s tolling technology will be utilised in the West Gate Tunnel Project, an initiative which seeks to establish a second river crossing in the city and remove thousands of trucks from residential streets. Part of an agreement between two contractors: CPB Contractors John Holland Joint Venture (CPBJH JV), the full scope of the contr

Clearview Intelligence has launched its Journey Time Monitoring System which uses crowdsourced data to generate automatic traffic alerts for temporary and permanent routes. Paul Bates, head of product management for Clearview, says the system – which analyses anonymous GPS-determined locations transmitted by mobile phone and satellite navigation users - removes the need for installing and maintaining roadside technology. Operators can launch the application from a computer and receive data in minutes.