News

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to add two cutting-edge automatic emergency braking systems to the recommended advanced safety features included under its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) – the latest step in a half-century of safety innovations that have saved more than 600,000 lives, according to new NHTSA research. The agency plans to continue to encourage development and commercialization of additional promising saf

Brazil's civil aviation minister Eliseu Padilha has given the thumbs up to include the international airport of southern Santa Catarina state capital Florianópolis in the next round of airport concessions, following lobby efforts by mayor César Souza Júnior last year. The project calls for the expansion of Hercilio Luz international airport by expanding the airport's flight line and taxiway as well as building a new parking lot with 1,800 spaces. A second project involves expanding the airport's passenge

Alstom has been awarded two contracts worth over US$73 million by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to supply signalling, telecom and electrification solutions for the new Kochi metro line. The projects will be implemented in early 2016 and commercial service is scheduled to begin in March 2016. The contracts include 25 Alstom Metropolis trains which will circulate on the new Kochi metro line which is 25 kilometres long and includes 22 stations. These trains will carry up to 15,000 passengers per hour

Following President Obama’s State of the Union address, republicans are indicating that they are open to compromising with the president on increasing US transportation funding, although neither side has offered specifics on how they would pay for new construction projects. According to The Hill, Obama has called for Congress to pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan, including using savings from tax reform to pay for transportation projects, although he stopped short of calling for an increase in the fe

French public transport operator Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) and manufacturer of cable-driven lift systems Pomagalski (POMA) have signed a three year partnership agreement for cable transport in urban environments. The two organisations have agreed to share information on current and future cable transport projects worldwide. They will also study the opportunities for joint development of new projects and will respond jointly to bids of mutual interest in cable transport fields. “We

Turkish railways have undergone a complete overhaul due to significant investments over the last five years. In the majority of rail projects currently under way, investment is directed towards the construction of new high-speed rail (HSR) lines, electrification, extensions and upgrading of existing infrastructure. With u$18 billion allocated for the rail sector as part of the Turkey Vision 2023 plan, the country is expected to have a total conventional rail network length of 25,940 kilometres and a HSR net

According to international surveyors, Cluttons, the Muscat government’s announcement to investigate the possible introduction of a tram service across the city is the first sign of a long awaited public transportation infrastructure plan, with the city’s real estate landscape directly expected to benefit in the long term. While the exact details of the proposed route are yet to be revealed, it is clear that any move to introduce public transport will be well received and will go some way to alleviating t

The Audit Office of New South Wales (NSW) has found that although the Roads and Maritime Services and Transport for NSW has deployed many controls to protect traffic management systems, these would have been only partially effective in detecting and preventing incidents and unlikely to support a timely response. There was a potential for unauthorised access to sensitive information and systems that could have disrupted traffic. Until Roads and Maritime Services’ IT disaster recovery site is fully commiss

Cubic Transportation Systems has joined the Smart Cities Council, a coalition of industry thought leaders, innovators and practitioners dedicated to improving the liveability, workability and sustainability of the world’s cities. A booming global population puts pressure on cities facing the inevitable question of how to manage personal travel within geographic and infrastructure constraints. Cubic enables greater integration across all modes of travel by leveraging data to generate predictive, personali

Traffic management specialist Iteris has joined forces with Tightrope Media Systems with to bring real-time traffic information to Community TV channels serving southern California communities. BlueCommute is a software-defined program is based on Iteris’ broad range of intelligent transportation system (ITS) solutions, providing commuters with an up-to-the-minute display of travel conditions across local routes. The BlueCommute platform delivers that information to viewers as a rich media experience,

The EU's TEN-T Programme will provide over US$58 million of co-financing for the deployment and use of intelligent transport systems (ITS) on European highways to improve their safety, security and efficiency. The projects will address several ITS services, including intelligent truck parking, travel time and real-time traffic information. Close cooperation among 20 EU Member States, road authorities and private stakeholders will improve and support ITS on the main European road network. It will provide

A pioneering bus scheme in Bristol will be more than doubled thanks to a huge US$41 million grant from the government, UK Transport Minister Baroness Kramer has announced. The MetroBus network uses dedicated busways to provide new express bus services into the city. The infrastructure will also boost existing bus services, which can use the busways to beat congestion. The new money will support the second phase of the Bristol MetroBus scheme and see the construction of another 3.1 miles of busways in th

Iteris is presenting its Big Data Analytics for Congestion Management Programs webinar on Wednesday, 28 January 28at 11 am PST. Traditionally, transportation system performance and congestion monitoring has been limited to using floating car surveys and traffic count data. Data from these conventional methods covered a limited number of observations. With technological advancements, massive traffic data from infrastructure sensors and vehicle probes have become increasingly available. This new and rich d

Since it launched on 30 November last year, Dart Charge has already helped to speed up journeys by removing the need to stop at a barrier to pay the Dartford Crossing charge. To get the most benefit from the changes, the UK Highways Agency has developed a new way of identifying and managing over-height vehicles and dangerous loads before they enter the tunnel, a job that until now was carried out at the payment barriers. All major tunnels have rules about what substances can be taken through them an

Executive director and CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), Patrick D. Jones, has made a statement on the State of the Union Address, saying: “In his State of the Union Address tonight, President Obama said that Republicans and Democrats must work together to make critical repairs and improvements to our long-neglected transportation infrastructure. As the economy starts back on the right track, Congress can rescue this vital part of our economic engine from further d