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Following unacceptable delays in adoption of life-saving technology, US Senators Charles Schumer and Richard Blumenthal have announced the Positive Train Control Safety Act. This major rail safety bill ensures railroads are moving forward swiftly to install positive train control technology (PTC), following repeated delays in implementation of this critical technology. The bill also takes important steps to improve rail inspection practices, and enhance safety at grade crossings and work zones following rep

French infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau has opted for and HaCon’s train planning system (TPS) as part of their redesign process in terms of managing and creating timetables. TPS will be implemented for about 650 train planners at SNCF Réseau – HaCon is realizing this major project together with its partners Sopra Steria Consulting, who is managing the consortium, and Cereza/Groupe Talan. Within the framework of the Système Industriel de la Production des Horaires (SIPH) project, the integration of

Egis has been awarded an operation and maintenance services contract for the National Highway 8D (NH-8D)in India, a 124 kilometres toll motorway connecting Jetpur (Rjkot district) and Somnath (Gir Somnath district) on the West coast of the Indian federal state of Gujarat. The motorway has two toll plazas with ten lanes each. The contract, awarded by concession company Jetpur Somnath Tollways Private Limited (JSTPL) lasts for three years (two years with one year automatic extension) and includes toll, ro

Screens have been installed at London’s Heathrow Terminal 2, showing passengers live price and journey time comparisons between taxis and the airport’s train service to central London. The screens combine real-time traffic, weather and Heathrow Express train service information into one user-friendly data feed, or journey comparison generator, at the terminal’s baggage reclaim zone. This summer the screens at each baggage carousel will be translated to the main language of people on the arriving fligh

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is concerned by the lack of investment by the EU in the transport sector. According to regions and cities, very little progress has been made also in integrating the European transport market in the last four years. These concerns were debated by CoR members at the 16 April plenary session, which saw the adoption of the opinion on the implementation of the 2011 European Commission White Paper on Transport, aiming to create a single European transport area. The

AMG, the UK manufacturer of CCTV transmission solutions and 5 Megapixel cameras, has completed the supply of the transmission solution for the security and surveillance project for the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Hong Kong. The comprehensive solution was designed and implemented by Hong Kong based UniVision Engineering on behalf of for Hong Kong’s Customs & Excise Department (C&ED,) Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF), Hong Kong Immigration Department (ImmD) and Tourist Commission (TC). In total, the Kai Tak

SES America has added its single line, full colour embedded digital message sign (DMS) to the Florida Department of Transportation’s TERL-approved product listing. According to SESA, the addition of full colour embedded DMS to its already approved product line continues to build out the offering of high-quality, energy efficient dynamic message signs the Rhode Island-based company manufactures for installation on highway projects across the US and Florida. Each embedded DMS is able to display standard

As Traffex 2015 event partner, Siemens will be exhibiting products from across its extensive range, from innovative traffic controllers, signals and detection solutions, to the very latest traffic management, electric vehicle charging and traffic enforcement systems. Siemens new Service Operations Centre, which is being launched at Traffex, is a dedicated traffic management and support service which brings together the company’s existing Field Service Contact Centre, Systems Support and its Poole-based C

International engineering and technology company Ricardo has announced an agreement to acquire the business, operating assets and employees engaged in the businesses of LR Rail, from Lloyd's Register Group. The acquisition will be materially complete on or before 1 July 2015 and the business will operate as the core of a new international rail business within Ricardo and combined with Ricardo's existing rail industry expertise, to be branded Ricardo Rail. Current LR Rail managing director Paul Seller wi

According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, most traffic signals in the US are only retimed every two to five years (or longer), largely due to the expense associated with retiming efforts. However, over the past several years, University of Minnesota researchers have developed and refined its SMART Signal system to make it easier and less expensive to retime signals. The system, developed with funding from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), not only collects traffic and si

TISPOL, the European Traffic Police Network has announced the provisional results from the first pan European 24-hour speed enforcement marathon, carried out on Thursday and Friday, 16 and 17 April. So far, a total of 122,581 speeding offences were detected exceeding speed limits between 6am on Thursday and 6am on Friday. 17 out of 22 countries have now provided data. Of these, 116,479 were detected by police officers, with 6,102 detections using automatic devices. A total of 4,253,386 vehicles wer

Transport infrastructure specialist Colas will be exhibiting its latest innovations in traffic management, intelligent transport solutions, safety barriers and integrated infrastructure at Traffex 2015. The company is also launching a new generation of full colour, scaleable matrix signs. Colas’ safety barrier and a scale model of its impact protection vehicle, which features advance warning radar, will also be on display. The company’s team will also be available to discuss the principle of integrated

D’Artagnan Consulting has been awarded a four-year contract to support the US Western Road Usage Charge Consortium (WRUCC), a voluntary group of twelve state Departments of Transportation. D’Artagnan will undertake collaborative research into policy and system development of new transportation funding methods that involve collecting a road usage charge (RUC) from drivers based on distance travelled on the roadway network. The company will investigate, develop, and potentially demonstrate various aspec

Parts of the European Commission’s proposals for the European Fund for Strategic Investments, which foresee the reallocation of US$3.5 billion from the Connecting Europe Facility to provide a part of the US$17 billion for the guarantee fund should be deleted, Transport MEPs suggested in their opinion approved on Tuesday. This target amount should instead be met by gradual budgetary commitments to the guarantee fund to be decided in the frame of the annual budgetary procedure, they add. Instead of cuttin

The US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has awarded eight grants totalling more than US$21.2 million to invest in highway-rail grade crossing safety, positive train control (PTC) implementation and passenger rail. The eight grants were awarded in states across the country and feature a wide array of projects, including: Grade crossing safety and passenger rail planning grants to California department of Transportation and Illinois Department of Transportation; Transportation Technology Center PTC