News

Sick’s new hot spot detector system proved its worth only one week after being installed by preventing a fire in the Karawanks Tunnel, Austria. A semi-trailer truck with a wheel temperature exceeding 200 degrees centigrade triggered the alarm as it passed the hot spot detector. Closer inspection indicated that in addition to the overheated brake, the vehicle was also travelling with two cracked brake discs. Developed by Sick’s Swiss subsidiary ECTN and based on the Sick LMS511 laser sensor with the T

The UK government’s plans to support the country’s burgeoning high-tech industry, centred on London, Cambridge and Oxford, are being facilitated by the Department for Transport (DfT) and its plans for a fully integrated transport network linking each of the three core technical clusters, as well as the wider technical community. The DfT is developing proposals for the construction of a new railway line from Bedford to Cambridge. This would build on the ongoing work on the east-west rail project and compl

In the US, the Texas-based Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is operating a connected vehicle affiliated test bed in cooperation with the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration. The DOT test bed project facilitates information exchange as well as access to tools and resources across other test bed facilities to support and encourage consistent future deployment of connected vehicle technologies. The project aims to advance the technology for full deplo

Robot Nederland, part of Jenoptik’s Traffic Solutions division is to supply over 130 stationary roadside speed measurement systems to the Central Justitieel Incassobureau (CJIB) in the Netherlands. The deal includes an eight-year operations and maintenance contract and is part of the EG100 framework agreement. Roll-out is expected to start in the first half of 2014.

Romanian state railway company CFR SA has awarded a contract worth US$519 million to a consortium including Strabag for the modernisation of the 42.2 kilometre long railway section between Vințu de Jos and Simeria in western Romania near the city of Sibiu. The modernisation works comprise the renovation of the railway section, including five stations located outside of the densely populated residential areas, rerouting of the track, tunnelling and bridge building as well as the track bed structure. In t

Datalogic, a global leader in automatic data capture and industrial automation markets, expects a surge in next generation advanced data collection devices, which will intelligently edit and communicate data and play a critical role in providing improved business analytics, termed ‘big data’. This vision for future market growth was delivered by Bill Parnell, President and CEO of Datalogic ADC, the division focused on the global automatic data capture market, speaking during ID World Rio de Janeiro, the

Global transportation consultants Cambridge Systematics and ICRA Management Consulting Services (IMaCS) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate in providing consulting services to the transportation sector in India, across Asia, and in Africa. IMaCS and Cambridge Systematics will offer a broad mix of consulting services to public and private sector clients in the transportation sector. “We are pleased to sign this MoU with a quality consulting firm like IMaCS, and we are excited ab

Public Transport Victoria (PTV) of Australia has launched a preliminary tender call to upgrade its bus tracking system after the existing system was found to be not cost effective. The system will provide real-time information on the location of buses, and the information can be used to provide customer information and to improve performance. PTV spokesman Adrian Darwent says the organisation undertook a review of the projects it is delivering, including the rollout of the current bus tracking system.

Scottish transport minister Keith Brown has announced plans for a 50 mph heavy goods vehicle (HGV) pilot to be introduced at the same time as average speed cameras on Scotland’s A9 road. The trial, which aims to improve the safety and operational performance the route, will go ahead next year alongside a safe driving campaign run by the haulage industry and the A9 Safety Group. In advance of the pilot, the Road Haulage Association will step up their efforts to ensure lorry drivers adhere to safe drivi

Moody’s Investor Services have up-rated the outlook for US toll roads from negative to stable. They think traffic should grow 1.5 per cent on a median basis in 2014, which they describe as a “sustainable comeback” from the three per cent decline since 2009. They think toll revenues should grow to a “mid-single digit percentage range” in 2013 and 2014 which we guess means 4 per cent to 6 per cent. They note such an increase in toll revenues is a slowdown from 2012 when big toll rate increases boosted r

Among the transport announcements made by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, in his Autumn Statement, he promised tax relief for motorists, including a freeze in fuel duty for the remainder of this Parliament. He also confirmed the abolition of the paper road tax disc, ‘removing an administrative inconvenience for millions of motorists’ from October 2014. This move is expected to save the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) around US$5 million a year. It will also save fleet own

MarketsandMarkets’ report, "Smart Railways Market [Passenger Information Systems, Freight Information Systems, Rail Traffic Management, Operations Management, Security Monitoring, Communications, Ticketing, Rail Analytics]: Worldwide Market Forecasts and Analysis (2013 - 2018)", defines and segments the Smart Railways Market into various sub-segments with in-depth analysis and forecasting of revenues. It also identifies drivers and restraints of this market with insights on trends, opportunities, and challe

New York’s state Thruway Authority has installed Doppler radar-enhanced LED signs to alert wrong-way drivers before they enter exits in Buffalo and Nyack, Rockland County, where wrong-way derivers have been involved in crashes. The radar can detect vehicles travelling the wrong way, setting off the LED sign and alerting the rest of the Thruway system. “New York is the first state in the nation to utilise this sophisticated technology to enhance traffic safety and save lives,” Governor Andrew Cuomo sai

Iteris has appointed Walter “Chuck” McBride as chief financial officer, effective from 3 December 2013. McBride joins Iteris from audio technology engineering company SRS Labs, where he was CFO from 2011 to 2012 and where he played an instrumental role in strategic and operational planning, international and domestic compliance, and mergers and acquisitions. McBride directed the successful merger and acquisition process when SRS was purchased by DTS in July 2012 at a significant premium. Prior to SRS,