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Thales has been selected to provide the central control and communication systems for Sydney Metro Northwest, the first fully-automated metro rail system in Australia, which opens in the first half of 2019 with a train every four minutes in the peak. Thales will deliver both systems to the Northwest Rapid Transit consortium (NRT) as a key supplier to NRT’s systems joint venture. With an approximate value of US$5.5 billion, Sydney Metro Northwest is the first stage of Sydney Metro, which aims to deliver a

Q-Free has been awarded a three-year, US$3.7 million order for tags from Sociedad Concesionaria Vespucio Norte Express in Chile. “We are pleased to win this highly competitive bid for tags. The last contract awards in Chile are confirming Q-Free’s attractiveness in the market for tags and systems,” says acting CEO Roar Østbø.

Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS has signed a three-year contract extension with TransLink commencing in September 2016, to continue operating and maintaining the go card smart card system in Brisbane, Australia. The announcement continues the contract between TransLink and Cubic until September 2019. The contract between TransLink and Cubic began in 2003 with the award of the region’s first smart card-based integrated ticketing system and services for public transport in Southeast Queensland.

eMobility ICT Interoperability Innovation, (eMI3) has released its first standard specification, setting its vision for interoperability in the electric vehicle (EV) market by enabling interoperability across EV products and services. Focused on presenting the EV market place with a first set of industry agreed standardised use cases and business objects, the coalition of EV more than 20 product and service providers behind eMI3 claim that interoperability matters to this sector as it means the speed at

Indra has won a US$2.8 million contract with Metro de Medellín to implement the complete fare collection system for the new Ayacucho trolley and to upgrade the contactless validators for the two subway lines. This new project will integrate the Ayacucho trolley line with the intermodal public transportation system that Indra has implemented in Colombia's second-largest city, and the company’s access control technology will be used in all modes of transport managed by Metro de Medellín. Indra's platform,

Kapsch has opened a branch office in London to represent its CarrierCom and TrafficCom businesses. The company is a technology supplier to Transport for London’s congestion charging scheme as well as providing Network Rail with GSM-R communications and digital radio communications for the Tyne and Wear Metro. Kapsch TrafficCom is also working with Highways England (and its Dutch equivalent, Rijkswaterstaat) on what it said will be Europe’s most advanced integrated traffic management systems. With the

US-based Traffic Technology Services (TTS) is expanding into Europe, with the creation of a subsidiary, TTS Europe, to expand the company in connected vehicle application data content. The new company will be based in Munich, headed by Dr Frank Offermann as CEO and will officially open in 2016. TTS is the developer of the Personal Signal Assistant product portfolio, used by OEMs and Tier 1s in various connected vehicle applications from engine management to recommended speeds for eco-driving. TTS is now

Flir Traficon Academy has organised a series of informative webinars for December, including: 1 December: Wrong way driver detector Using the Flir ThermiCam/TrafiSense integrated thermal camera and detector for wrong way driver detection. 3 December: Flir ITS Solutions This webinar explains the solutions FLIR ITS offers for traffic management. 15 December: Fire detection in tunnels Flir ITS introduces a new way to detect fires in tunnels.

The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), creator of MirrorLink, has signed a co-operation agreement with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in which ETSI will formally explore adopting MirrorLink as an ETSI Technical Specification (TS). The CCC and ETSI reached the accord on 17 November at the 66th ETSI General Assembly meeting in Sophia Antipolis. MirrorLink is an ingenious way to bring smartphone content to the dash. Huge icons make apps easy to use and smart technology knows if t

Singapore’s The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is seeking industry’s views on the technology, equipment and services necessary to upgrade the current AFC system to support a hands free solution that will enable a commuter to take the public transport without the need to tap a fare card on the fare gates or processors in future. The LTA’s vision for the future is a fare payment system where technology will help detect and automatically register commuters in a bus or train, so long as the commuter has the far

Measurement and control technology company Lufft has been names as a winner of the Dr Rudolf Eberle, named after the former Baden-Württemberg Minister of Economics and awarded by the Ministry of Economics. Since 1985, the Baden-Württemberg innovation award has celebrated medium-sized companies in the region who have developed outstanding technological innovations in the fields of industry, trade, and technological services. Lufft’s innovative Marwis mobile road sensor impressed the 12 members of the e

As vehicle manufacturers, regulators and governments around the world seek solutions to prevent another emissions cheating scandal similar to the Volkswagen case, a major vehicle emissions inspection company has compiled and analysed on-road emissions data indicating that emissions violations of vehicles under real-world driving conditions may well go far beyond VW diesels. Opus Inspection says a two-pronged approach that continuously monitors real-world emissions is the only effective remedy. Lothar Ge

A new milestone in a project to develop innovative ways of reducing noise along the M40 has been reached, with the award of a design contract worth up to US$3 million. The contract will see WSP Parsons Brinkerhoff review sites along the M40 between junctions 3 and 8, which have been identified as areas where road noise is a particular issue and help decide where the barriers would be of benefit. Earlier this year, Highways England, working in partnership with the M40 Chiltern Environmental Group, (M40