News

The government in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has awarded three engineering and construction packages for its six-line metro project. The contracts, worth around US$22 billion, have been awarded to a consortium of the US's Bechtel, Germany's Siemens, the regional Consolidated Contractors Company and Saudi Arabia's Almabani; a consortium led by Italy's Ansaldo STS; Spain's Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), France's Alstom and South Korea's Samsung C&T.

Based on its recent analysis of the advanced commercial vehicle safety systems market, Frost & Sullivan has presented DriveCam with the 2013 North America Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award. With its commitment to meet customer needs and enhance customer value, DriveCam provides an innovative, predictive, analytics-based driver safety solution that effectively addresses key challenges faced by transportation businesses in driver safety, regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and fuel

In response to the announcement that average speed cameras are to be introduced on a stretch of the A9 in Scotland, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has said that any speed limit must be properly enforced. The decision to install the new average speed camera system which will run from Dunblane to Inverness follows an on-going review of evidence as well as careful consideration of the views of the A9 Safety Group – to which FTA has contributed on behalf of its members over the last year.

Q-Free has confirmed that a loan agreement has been signed between Export Credit Norway and PT Rin Indonesia Jaya, a subsidiary of PT Inovisi Infracom Tbk, for part financing of the contract signed in 2011 for an electronic law enforcement (ELE) project. As part of the financing agreement, PT Inovisi Infracom Tbk has signed a parent company guarantee for the loan. The loan will be released upon initial payment of US$6 million to Q-Free, which will also mark the start-up of the project. The loan from Expor

TrafficLand video support and distribution services will expand availability to traffic video imagery for Texas commuters, media and public agencies. TrafficLand, US distributor of live traffic video, has reached an agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for access to video images from the state’s traffic camera network. The agreement gives TrafficLand access to video images from more than 1,600 TxDOT traffic cameras located across Texas. TrafficLand will access the video through TxD

UK snack manufacturer Tayto has partnered with TomTom, supported by official TomTom partner Fleet Simplicity, to deploy Link tracking units and ecoPlus fuel management and diagnostics devices across its 117-strong vehicle fleet. This combined tracking, performance monitoring and fuel management system provides improved visibility and insights into its mobile teams of sales, management and distribution professionals. The system enables information on how vehicles are being driven, from speeding and idling t

With more than 300 people losing their lives in road accidents every year, the Millennium City in Haryana, India, desperately needs to improve its road infrastructure. Although successive governments in Haryana have gifted the city numerous expressways, making the roads safe and traffic flow smooth has not figured prominently in the political schemes of development. Traffic in the city and on the expressways, most significantly the Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway, has been mired by a range of problems, from a sca

Officially launched in February 2013, tenders for the high-speed rail link project between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore will be received towards the end of 2014, Mohd Nur Kamal, the CEO of Malaysia's Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) has announced. Although the two governments continue to work on technical details and feasibility studies, various parties have already voiced an interest. The railway, which will connect the two countries at speeds exceeding 300 km/h, will reduce the journey time between t

International engineering firm Parsons Corp has unveiled its proposed US$3.5 billion project to ease traffic on Interstate 70 through the central mountains in Eagle County, Colorado. Parsons had submitted an unsolicited proposal to Colorado Department of Transportation in 2011. The three-phase project would include tolled express lanes and a bus rapid transit system and be completed as soon as 2021. The express lanes would be reversible to accommodate peak traffic flows to and from the mountains. The proje

New projections from US advocacy group the Electric Coalition indicate that the cost of owning an electric car is on its way to becoming competitive with petrol-powered cars. The coalition teamed with professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to calculate expected costs of several types of compact cars, pitting battery-electric against internal combustion engines, plug-in hybrids and hybrid vehicles. Including cost of purchase, fuel, maintenance, federal tax credits and residuals, the data sho

The CNVETX1 video encoder/decoder from UK-based ComNet Europe is designed for those applications suffering or likely to experience extreme temperatures, vibration, shock or irregular voltage and where humidity with condensation are present, says the company. The all-new CNVETX1 is a single channel video encoder/decoder which has been ‘industrially hardened’ for use in the most extreme operating environments. It accepts an incoming baseband video signal with duplex audio and serial data for camera PTZ contro

Global electronic toll collection (ETC) systems revenues are expected to grow from US$4.48 billion in 2013 to US$8.5 billion in 2018, with a CAGR of 14 per cent and North America as the vital region., according to a new report from ABI Research, Electronic Toll Collection: A Key Business Driver for ITS and V2I. The study covers types of ETC (highway, urban, and area tolling), ETC technologies (RFID, DRSC, video, and GNSS/cellular), use cases and benefits, as well as an in-depth review of the main implementa

Investigations continue into the cause of the train crash approaching the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, but suggestions that the train was travelling too fast appear to be gaining weight. Officials say one of the train's drivers has been put under formal investigation. The president of railway firm Renfe, Julio Gomez Pomar, has said the train in the crash had no technical problems. "The train had passed an inspection that same morning. Those trains are inspected every 7,500km... Its maintenance r

A joint venture comprising Dutch consultancy and engineering company Royal HaskoningDHV and Saudi Arabian Mshari Al-Shathri engineering consultant has been appointed by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Transport to prepare a feasibility study and preliminary design for a first public transport system for Dammam. The objective of the system is to alleviate congestion in the area, which has seen significant growth in recent years. Increasing use of private cars has led to congestion and at current growth rates,

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is offering the public a great opportunity to share its views and be a part of the development of the Department's next ITS Strategic Plan. This plan will identify the ITS-related research, development, and education areas that the USDOT will focus on for the rest of the decade. Various opportunities exist for the public to provide input, including an online feedback site.