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The 1.1 million inhabitants of Adelaide, Australia, will shortly start reaping the benefits of a Xerox contactless ticketing system on the city’s network of 1000 buses, 26 trams and 130 railcars. In the test phase, seventy vehicles equipped with mixed ticketing consoles and validators are serving the Adelaide Hills area, where ticket office and retailer machines have already been installed. "This partial deployment represents less than 10% of the project equipment, but calls on almost all of the functions o

According to a study by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, electric cars might pollute much more than petrol or diesel-powered cars. Researchers found greenhouse gas emissions rose dramatically if coal was used to produce the electricity. Electric car factories also emitted more toxic waste than conventional car factories, claims their report in the Journal of Industrial Energy. However, in some cases electric cars still made sense, the researchers said.

Qatar is in the final stages of its plan to develop a fully integrated multimodal transportation system, says Public Works Authority (Ashghal) president Nasser Ali al-Mawlawi. The aim is to develop a fully-integrated multimodal transportation system in line with Qatar National Vision 2030 and Qatar National Development Strategy 2011-2016, and the country is developing tailored solutions to meet the requirement of Qatar and learning from the experiences of others.

With a total area of over 380,000 square meters, the multi-storey West Kowloon rail terminus, the majority of it located underground, will be larger than most airport terminals, and capable of handling around 99,000 passengers per day. The first trains are expected to run from 2015. The Hong Kong section of the express rail link, operating at up to 200 km per hour, will connect Hong Kong with the capital Beijing over 2,000 kilometers away, passing via Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Wuhan.

Join the Ertico webinar at 1430 on 10 October and take a walk through the 19th ITS World Congress in Vienna. Eric Sampson, Senior Programme Adviser from ERTICO, will take you step by step through the exciting programme and tell what you’ll want to see and where you’ll want to be. Learn about the KongressNavigato app for iPhone, Android and mobile web, the first app to combine navigation through the city with guidance to the congress centre.

Automotive supplier Visteon Corporation, in collaboration with Cohda Wireless, is providing vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications equipment for the US Department of Transportation safety pilot program. The project potentially offers significant improvements in driver awareness including collision, hazardous road and curve speed warnings and traffic flow information. The safety pilot program is led by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and will integrate 5.9 GHz dedicated short ra

An extensive traffic management systems upgrade is under way in Northamptonshire, where UK company Siemens is supplying Northamptonshire County Council with the latest PC SCOOT urban traffic control system and the recently-launched Siemens InView hosted fault management solution. Subsequent phases of the upgrade will see the existing analogue TC12 outstations replaced by the latest Siemens UTMC compliant UG405 outstations and ultimately the migration to a new hosted traffic management service solution. In

PowerPoint presentations from September’s Connected Vehicle public meeting in Chicago are now available for viewing on the internet. The meeting, which was organised by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO), focused on vehicle-to-vehicle safety, the current safety pilot model deployment, development of a robust vehicle-to-infrastructure environment, connected vehicle deployment strategies, and preparation for NHTSA's 2013 decision. In addition, participants had an opportunit

The city of Albuquerque in New Mexico is to get a new regional traffic management centre according to mayor Richard J. Berry, who has unveiled plans for a brand new facility located at Kirtland Air Force Base. The centre is proposed to be located in the Jenkins Armed Forces Reserve Center which was relocated onto Kirkland Air Force Base. The City of Albuquerque owned the property, and had been leasing it for a dollar a year to the armed services. “And now”, says the mayor, “the armed services are donating

Japanese motor manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has begun tests of Ha:mo, an optimised urban transportation system. The tests involve TMC and its collaborative allies such as the municipal government of Toyota city, Yamaha Motor, Aichi Loop Line, Nagoya Railroad, Aichi Rapid Transit, Meitetsu Kyosho, Chukyo University, Meitetsucom, Hitachi and Meitetsu Bus. Ha:mo is the name being given to TMC-developed systems that seek to provide user, town, and community-friendly transport support through the

September saw the first Transport Protocol Experts Group (TPEG) Testfest in Munich, Germany, where sixteen organisations active in the provision of TPEG services around the world gathered to carry out three days of intensive testing. Jointly organised by ERTICO and Traveller Information Services Association (TISA), the Testfest follows a series of interoperability test events already organised by ERTICO on various ITS services, such as cooperative mobility and eCall. Tests focused mainly on the implementat

The Moscow region’s first toll road opened on 1 October 2012 on the M4 Don highway. The state-owned company Russian Highways (Avtodor) has invested US193 million to reconstruct the road before introducing the toll system, which it is planned to extend in the future. Car drivers will pay US$0.32 at night and US$0.96 during the day; truck drivers will pay from US$0.48 to US$3.8 depending on vehicle size and time of day. Drivers can pay by cash, credit cards, prepaid contactless smart cards, or via transpond

Following its receipt of an order earlier this year for the supply of supply traffic safety systems and the set up and support of local operations, and following acceptance testing, German traffic systems manufacturer Jenoptik has successfully implemented its automated enforcement system in Malaysia. The system includes the enforcement cameras and back office system; prior to implementation, the complete system was rigorously tested, from the recording of offences and transmission to the back office, to the

Slough Borough Council (SBC) in the UK has joined the growing number of UK local authorities to deploy the latest version of Comet, Siemens’ traffic management and information system. Comet will enable SBC to meet its policy, operational and travel information requirements including the ability to set network strategies. The solution will provide a command and control system for strategic variable message signs (VMS) and car park guidance and will also provide dynamic content to SBC’s planned internet and

IBM and Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board (ESB) are set to work together to deploy more integrated charging IT system for electric vehicles in Ireland. With 1,000 such public charging points now installed around the country, drivers will also be able to access all charging stations using an ID card. ESB Networks, which is currently rolling out the public charge points around Ireland, will be using IBM's Intelligent Electric Vehicle Enablement Platform to operate and manage these charge points. Apparently,