News

Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) has announced that it intends to look into how to encourage commuters to use public transport more frequently, lessen car travel and change their journeys to off-peak periods. A consultant is being sought by the LTA to evaluate if the various workplace-based travel plan programmes are feasible and effective in switching the travel patterns of commuters.

Econolite has announced that in just three years, it has reached a major industry milestone with an order for the 100th Centracs Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS). To be installed in Georgia, the software system will be deployed as part of the city of Johns Creek’s ITS master plan that provides the vision and strategy for the future development of the city’s traffic operations.

Skolkovo foundation has held a tender for the development of a smart city concept which has been won by a consortium of Russia-based Cognitive Technologies IT company, Ernst & Young consulting company from the UK and Japan-based Panasonic. Skolkovo, near Moscow, is also known as the Russian Silicon Valley, and the contract is worth US$3.06 million.

The consortium made up of Acciona Infraestructuras and Tradeco from Spain and Mexico and the consortium made up of Odebrecht and Hyundai Joint Venture from Brazil and South Korea plus Vinci Construction Grands Projets from France have pre-qualified in the tender for the construction of a new bridge at the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. The second stage of the selection process will involve the client Panama Canal Authority (ACP) sending the contract terms and conditions to bidders. The 75m high and 4.6

The Kiev City State Administration (KSCA), in the Ukraine, is intending to attract private investors to build a metro line to Troyeshchyna housing estate. The relevant memorandum of understanding was signed at the I Kiev Investment Forum last week between the KSCA and the National Agency for Investment and Innovation, which will seek investors.

Sri Lanka’s Airport Express Air and Rail (AEAR) is planning to build the first rapid transit metro system in the country at a cost of US$600 million. US-based Louis Berger and India-based KPMG Mumbai have been hired to conduct a technical study and a feasibility study for the project. Construction is scheduled to start in early 2013 after approvals are granted and the studies are completed. The system is scheduled to be operational by 2016.

Capita Symonds’ Innovations team has secured a new contract on the UK Highways Agency Traffic Information System (Hatris) programme. The contract, which is an extension to the company’s current work on the scheme, will see the team taking the project through to December 2014. The Hatris system, which has been developed and enhanced by Capita Symonds since 2005, is used to monitor and report on vehicle journey times across set routes on the UK motorway and trunk road network. This enables the Highways Agency

Chile's Public Transport Minister, Pedro Pablo Errazuriz, has announced that the government is looking to replicate the successful speed camera system that is used in France. The system captures photos of speeding cars and then sends out letters to offenders, issuing them with a fine within two days of the offence. This has enabled France to dramatically improve the safety of its roads, reducing the number of road deaths from an average of 8,000 per year in 2003 to an estimated 4,000 in 2012. The cameras ar

Dutch company PAL-V Europe has concluded test flights of its flying car, the PAL-V (Personal Air and Land Vehicle). The patented vehicle flies in the air like a gyrocopter with lift generated by an auto-rotating rotor and forward speed is produced by a foldable push propeller on the back. On the road it drives like a sports car. No new infrastructure is required because it uses existing roads and airstrips.

California’s Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has launched the first phase of its 290km conversion of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to Express Lanes, or commonly known as high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, with TransCore serving as lead integrator for the project. The US$11.8 million programme comes at a crucial time in Silicon Valley as it prepares for an expected 38 per cent growth in population over the next 20 years and funding for transportation improvements is projected to grow at

The International Transport Forum at the OECD, an intergovernmental organisation for the transport sector that comprises 53 countries, has announced the projects shortlisted for its 2012 Transport Achievement Award that honours transport projects that have demonstrated excellence in seamlessly connecting people, infrastructure or markets.

Three global organisations have teamed up to launch what they claim is the most comprehensive, public database of bus rapid transit (BRT) systems around the world. The new site, http://BRTdata.org, was created by Embarq, the World Resources Institute’s centre for sustainable transport, and the Across Latitudes and Cultures - Bus Rapid Transit Centre of Excellence (ALC-BRT CoE), in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Kapsch CarrierCom has successfully implemented the latest train security and communication technology on the first high speed line in the Galicia region in the North West of Spain. The route between Orense and Santiago covers 87 km of tracks with 29 km of tunnels through a very mountainous area. Kapsch has been the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) GSM-R system turnkey supplier including network design, network integration and optimisation to the project. The company has also supplied all site infrastructure req