News

Auckland’s Green Party has adopted the Congestion Free Network plan of public transport projects proposed by youth organisation Generation Zero and the Transportblog, a blueprint which lays out a future integrated public transport network in the city, staged at five yearly intervals through to 2030.

There should be greater use of intelligence-led policing to catch drink drivers who repeatedly and excessively flout the law, according to road safety charity Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM). The call from the IAM comes as new figures published by the Department for Transport show the number of fatal accidents involving drink drivers last year falling by five per cent, from 220 in 2011 to 210 in 2012. In the same period, the number of people killed in drink drive accidents decreased by four per cent,

Infrastructure software provider Yotta is partnering with infrastructure services company FM Conway to deliver a US$50.4 million per annum highway maintenance contract for Westminster City Council in London. WSP is a third partner on the project, supplying design services.

City Schools of Decatur will soon become the twelfth school district in Georgia, US, to deploy American Traffic Solutions’ (ATS) CrossingGuard technology to help school districts address the growing problem of illegal passing of school buses that are stopped and boarding or disembarking children.

Kapsch CarrierCom has completed the implementation of European Train Control Systems (ETCS) on two rail routes in the Czech republic. The two routes, Lanžhot in the Czech Republic to Kúty in Ukraine and Břeclav, Czech Republic to Hohenau, Austria, have been equipped with GSM for railways (GSM-R) technology to provide standardised signalling, control and train safety.

Xerox and Parkmobile have been selected to upgrade parking meter technology in the City of St Louis as part of an ongoing effort to modernise operations. The goal is to provide the city with a cost-effective on-street parking system that allows people to use cash, credit cards and mobile phones to pay for parking. Xerox will be responsible for upgrading parking meters and software technology, while Parkmobile will be responsible for launching a smartphone app to pay for parking. During a recent six month pa

The Abuja Airport terminal expansion project in Nigeria, currently under construction by Chinese company CECC, is around 30 per cent complete and is expected to open for operation in December 2014. The scheme, when completed, will connect the city centre to the satellite towns in the country. The Federal Government has embarked on improving most of the nation’s airport terminals across the country via various remodelling and expansion works with a view to bringing them up to international standards.

Peru's ‘chaotic’ urban transport system generates losses of US$20 billion a year due to health, transport and economic costs, according to state news agency Andina. Luis Gutiérrez, head of Latin American BRT association (SIBRT), said accidents, pollution-caused breathing problems and sedentary-related illnesses cost US$8 billion a year in Peru, while transport-related problems such as time wasted in traffic and higher gasoline consumption cost another US$8 billion. The remaining US$4 billion is the impact o

Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Intelligent Transportation Society Singapore (ITSS) have jointly launched Smart Mobility 2030, the country’s master plan outlining how its intelligent transport systems (ITS) will develop over the next 15 years. Its goal is to optimise transport systems and to enhance commuter travel experience across Singapore with the latest ITS initiatives and advancements in transport technologies. To address Singapore’s current and future transportation needs, Smart M

Siemens, in conjunction with Volvo, is to trial an eHighway system on a two-mile stretch of highway in California in the vicinity of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The company was awarded the contract by Southern California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) with the objectives of eliminating local emissions, reducing the consumption of fossil fuels and cutting the operating costs of trucks. The two ports are seeking an emission-free solution, Zero Emission I-710 Project, for a

The BelToll electronic toll collection system, implemented and operated by Kapsch TrafficCom in Belarus, Serbia, was expanded by another 256 kilometres at the beginning of August, just one year after its commissioning in 2013. The system, which was also expanded by 815 kilometres in January 2014, is now 1,189 kilometres long; according to Kapsch TraffiCom, the number of registered vehicles has more than trebled since the system was put into operation, increasing from 60,000 to 190,000 vehicles.

A consortium consisting of Strabag subsidiary Heilit+Woerner and Budimex is to build a 48 kilometre section of the S5 expressway between Poznań and Wrocław in Poland. Work on the US$185 million project is due to begin in around four weeks and is expected to last 30 months. Completion and commissioning of the new section are scheduled for 2017.

Announcing a decrease in traffic fatalities in Tennessee, US, earlier this year, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security indicated preliminary figures of 988 traffic fatalities in 2013, a 2.7 per cent decrease compared to 2012, when there were 1,015 traffic fatalities. At the same time, Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) Colonel Tracy Trott said: “In 2014, we will employ a predictive analytics model to look even more closely at where traffic crashes are most likely to occur and deploy our res

The One North report, produced by the city regions of Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield in the UK, puts forward a strategic proposition for transport in the north of the country. The US$16.8-US$25.2 billion plan urges major changes in connectivity and capacity between the northern cities over the next 15 years and proposes optimisation of strategic highway capacity, a new high speed trans-Pennine rail route and improved city region rail networks interconnected with HS2 services, new inte

Aarhus Light Rail has awarded the Italian-German consortium of Ansaldo STS and Stadler Pankow a contract for the delivery of a complete light rail transit system for Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. The order consists of both rolling stock and infrastructure for what will become the first light rail transit system in Denmark. Train manufacturer Stadler will deliver the rolling stock split on trams of the Variobahn type and tram-trains of the Tango type designed for speeds of 80 and 100 km/h respe