News

The Mass Rapid Transit Authority (MRTA) of Thailand is to make immediate plans to develop six additional mass rapid transit (MRT) rail lines that should be operational by 2020. The lines will measure a length of 200 kilometres and entail US$19.16 billion in combined investments. The move was spurred by a forecast that suggests some three million passengers a day will use the MRT rail system in Bangkok by 2020.

Econolite has announced that Lee County, Florida, has harnessed the travel time module of its Centracs advanced transportation management system (ATMS) for the deployment of its BlueToad (Bluetooth Travel-time Origination and Destination) system to actively monitor travel times and road speeds. The ATMS was installed in 2011, as part of Lee County’s signal re-timing project for which the county’s DoT received an ‘A’ grade in the 2012 National Transportation Operations Coalition (NTOC) National Traffic Signa

The ASEAN region is set to become the 6th biggest automotive market globally by 2018 with vehicle sales almost doubling to nearly 4.7 million units as compared to 2.4 million in 2011, according to new analysis from Frost & Sullivan. Entitled CEO 360 Degree Perspective of the Automotive Industry in ASEAN, (covering four key automotive markets in ASEAN - Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) the study finds that the market is likely to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1 per cent (2011-2

Yesterday, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, a part of the US$15.4 billion Mahindra Group, formally inaugurated its manufacturing facility, which is the first platinum rated automobile facility in India. Inaugurating the world-class, energy efficient, green manufacturing facility, Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director, Mahindra Group unveiled the Group's vision to co-create and shape the "future of mobility".

GE Capital Fleet Services has announced the launch of a new eco-focused website that provides access to the company’s depth of knowledge regarding alternative fuels and related sustainable products. The website can be accessed via: www.gefleet.com/eco. “Our new, enhanced eco website presents users with an interactive and educational experience that shows how our green solutions can help optimise customers’ fleets,” said Deb Frodl,

An extensive programme to upgrade Northampton County Council's current traffic systems is about to get underway. Siemens will initially provide Northamptonshire in the UK with the latest PC SCOOT UTC system and replace the existing Prefect system with the company’s recently launched InView hosted fault management solution. Subsequent phases will see the swapping out of all existing analogue TC12 outstations for the latest Siemens UTMC compliant UG405 outstations and ultimately the migration to a new hosted

Leading car sharing network company Zipcar has announced a new partnership with the city of Houston to launch a municipal electric vehicle (EV) fleet sharing programme, called Houston Fleet Share. Through this initiative, 50 existing city-owned fleet vehicles – including 25 Nissan Leaf EVs – will be outfitted with Zipcar's FastFleet proprietary fleet sharing technology for use by city employees across all departments.

The joint organisers of the Road Engineering Association of Asia & Australasia (REAAA) Conference, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 26 to 28 March 2013, have announced that registration is now open on the event website - www.14reaaaconf2013.com. The theme of the event is The Road Factor in Economic Transformation, the focus of which will be on the development and maintenance of an efficient road infrastructure

Research carried out by Emedia on 460 UK businesses operating vehicle fleets for TomTom suggests that almost half of UK businesses face resistance from drivers when attempting to introduce new technology to their vehicle fleet. The most frequent complaint made by drivers is that technology represents ‘big brother’, cited by 43 per cent of businesses as their staff’s primary concern.

OmniAir Certification Services (OCS) has accredited MET Laboratories as the first test lab in the 6C-for-Tolling Certification Programme. This scheme is designed to ensure tolling tag and reader interoperability (IOP) across equipment vendors and toll facilities that choose to deploy equipment certified as compliant to the 6C Requirements Document as defined by the 6C Toll Operators Committee. It is based on the ISO/IEC 18000-6 (Type C) RFID protocol.

A series of controls to enforce drink driving and drug driving regulations across Europe saw police conduct more than 900,000 breath tests in a seven-day period, of which nearly 18,000 were positive. Motorists were also checked for drugs in the operation, organised by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL), between 4 and 10 June. In total, 928,863 drivers were controlled. There were 17,970 alcohol offences and 2,773 drug offences detected.

France-headquartered tolling system specialist CS has announced that it has received a binding offer from Sanef Group to acquire its ITS business unit. The deal would allow CS ITS, which employs some 220 people and registered € 31.4 million (US$38.96 million) revenues in 2011, to take full advantage of a growing tolling system market. The company says it will initiate consultation with its workers council representatives with a view to finalising the acquisition.