News

The European Investment bank has provided a EUR 150m loan to the City of Tampere, Finland for the construction the first section of its tramline, connecting the city centre and eastbound suburbs, scheduled to open in 2021. The construction of the 15km long tramline is divided into two sections. Section 1 covers the construction of the route, linking the city centre, from Pyynikintori, with two branches:

Transport software provider PTV Group has joined forces on a two-year project to assess the application of autonomous and electric buses in areas with different settlement structures and population densities. The project ‘Research into the preconditions for the and fields of application of autonomous and electric (mini) buses in public transport’, will focus on technology and infrastructure, space and traffic-related conditions and acceptance.

Varamar Group has launched what it claims to be the first independent online platform for the global freight market, to save time and money for users in the shipping industry, Ukraine. In phase one, Sipnext, endorsed by Baltic and International Maritime Council and European investment bank Dragon Capital, uses software to read an emailed cargo request or ship position and match cargos with ships using 70 various databases and algorithms

58% of residents in Luxembourg are willing to exchange their current car for an electric vehicle (EV), according to a report by TNS ILLres. The report comes as Luxembourg plans to deploy more recharging points for EVs and tax reductions following the latest tax reforms, the Rifkin study, which suggests only registrations of EVs will start from 2025.

Traffic hotspots in 25 of the most congested cities in the US cost drivers billions of dollars over the next ten years, according to a new report by Inrix’s cloud-based analysis tool. Inrix’s Roadway analytics (IRA) tool ranked over 100, 000 traffic hotspots with economic cost calculated on wasted time, lost fuel and carbon emissions over the next ten years.

Kapsch TrafficCom will use the 2017 ITS World Congress Montréal to showcase its integrated mobility solutions for the smart cities and connected communities of the future. Visitors to the company’s booth will experience how Kapsch uses intelligent traffic technologies to improve the way people live, work, move, commute, and interact with each other.

The European Governments and EU are subsidising €112 billion each year for the production and consumption of fossil fuels, claims a new report from the Overseas Development Institute and Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe – violating the Paris Agreement’s phase-out plan 2020. The report, Phase-Out 2020: Monitoring Europe’s fossil fuel subsidies (PH20202) gathered the information from 11 European countries between 2014 – 2016.

Star Systems International announced the availability of Avior narrow beam tolling antenna, designed for over-the-road tolling for all electronic tolling systems using passive tags. Avoir allows system designers to create an optimal read zone in either multi-lane free flow / open road or a plaza-base tolling lane. STAR Systems claims Avoir maximises read rates and isolates tag identification and helps avoid cross-lane and stray transponder reads while mitigating adjacent lane interference.

Two US Senators have announced a bipartisan agreement to remove some regulations which made it harder to deploy self-driving cars on American roads, according to a report on US political website ‘The Hill’. On 4 October a Senate committee will consider the legislation already passed by the House of representatives which would allow automakers to sell up to 25,000 vehicles in the first year they are offered and up to 100,000 if they are deemed to be as safe as cars driven by humans.

The European Commission has updated the European rules on rail passenger rights to provide adequate information for passengers, improve rights for disabled passengers, and protect rail operators from compensating passengers under strict circumstances. The Commission has outlined five key areas in its proposal to the existing rules of passengers. Firstly, that long-distance domestic and cross-border regional services

The UK government have set up a £30 million grant scheme for local authorities in England and Wales looking to fit bus fleets with an accredited and cost-effective retrofit program that enables emissions-reductions. The Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Scheme, developed by LowCVP and Energy Saving Trust, follows an evaluation report presented by LowCVP on findings from two public grant programmes that used retrofit technologies over a five-year period -- the clean Vehicle

Putting a financial value on the savings from traffic congestion, noise and air pollution as a result of toll roads and tunnels will make large infrastructure projects more cost effective, according to a new study by Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Sae Chi, from the university’s Science and Engineering Faculty, has compared the financial and economic cost of public and privately operated toll roads and tunnels, and found the net impacts to the community should be taken into account

Arcola Energy has completed delivery and installation of a unique hydrogen fuel cell system, as part of an innovative energy storage project in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. Arcola Energy and its German partner Proton Motor joined forces to design, build and install a 75kW hydrogen fuel cell system as part of the island’s innovative Surf ‘n’ Turf project. The project sees excess renewable electricity converted into hydrogen on the island of Eday, which is then stored and transported to Kirkwall on the Or

PA Consulting Group's latest research on autonomous vehicles (AVs) suggests that despite much hype, they are more than 10 years away from being a common sight on UK roads. PA's findings revealed that while progress is being made around technology, the rest of the ecosystem to support driverless cars - for example regulation, insurance, compliance, roads, users - still needs a lot of development. The recent launch of the Government's MERIDIAN scheme progressed plans for CAV technology development in th

Private and fleet car buyers could save hundreds of lives a year by insisting the cars they purchase are fitted with auto emergency braking (AEB), according to UK motoring organisation IAM RoadSmart and coalition partners. The coalition, which comprises car and road design experts, said AEB systems (which automatically apply the vehicle’s brakes if pedestrians, cyclists or other vehicles are detected ahead) could save 1, 100 lives and 122, 860 causalities over the next ten years. In addition, the insuran