I keep seeing European advocates for decarbonizing transportation downplay the importance of big infrastructure, especially high-speed rail. To that end, I’d like to proffer one argument for why high-speed rail decarbonizes transportation even when it …
Continue readingAuthor: Long Branch Mike
LR Update March 2025 – Interested in Joining Us?
The following is a public service announcement from London Reconnections: During the pandemic London Reconnections basically ran on a skeleton staff basis. But we have slowly rebuilt our capacity to produce long form content on …
Continue readingState of European Transport 2025: Cities (Transport&Environment)
Cities are cleaning up transport faster than countries, introducing ambitious goals that go beyond European and national policies. The first zero-emission zones (ZEZ) are already in force, and a total of 35 such zones are …
Continue readingHigh-visibility clothing may thwart pedestrian crash prevention sensors (InsuranceInstForHighwaySafety)
The clothing that makes pedestrians stand out to human drivers may make them invisible to automated crash prevention systems, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests. “These results suggest that some …
Continue readingFirst meeting of UK bus manufacturing panel (PassengerTransport)
Local transport minister joins bus manufacturers, metro mayors and others to discuss how to transform the fleet while supporting UK bus builders. Greener bus travel, new UK jobs and bigger business was on the agenda …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 21 March 2025
• London’s black cabs destined for extinction in 20 years, TfL warned (Guardian) • London’s Most Controversial Bus, the BYD BD11 Reviewed: Video (Network Nathan) • Britain’s Bike-Friendliest ‘New Town’ Is a Model for Car-Free …
Continue reading‘Innovation Farm’ opens for testing lineside distributed acoustic sensing (RailBusiness)
Sensonic has opened an ‘Innovation Farm’ test facility to help it develop optic fibre cable distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technologies without the need for lineside access to a live railway. DAS utilises existing optic fibre …
Continue readingSolaris wins Vancouver Contract for up to 512 new Trolleybuses (UrbanTransportMag)
The operator of public transport in the Greater Vancouver area, Translink, has been working on a project for the renewal of its trolleybus fleet and possible expansion of the system, which currently has a fleet …
Continue readingNew Study Quantifies Just How Much Highways Block Social Connection (NextCity)
Anew study confirms what urban residents and advocates have known for decades: that America’s urban highways are barriers to social connection. The research, published this month in the journal PNAS, quantifies for the first time how …
Continue readingVery light rail & pop-up metro partnership (MetroReport)
US-based international railway investor Railroad Development Corp and British lightweight rolling stock developer TDI Greenway are to join forces in the emerging very light rail and ‘pop-up metro’ sectors. A joint venture announced on February …
Continue readingDfT ‘unclear’ on status of safeguarding for revised Crossrail 2 route (NewCivilEngineer)
The status of the safeguarding for the revised Crossrail 2 route is uncertain after the Department for Transport (DfT) failed to answer a peer’s question about the process. Transport for London (TfL) said “discussions continue” …
Continue readingEnglish Settlement: Devolving Powers to Enable Intermodal Fare Integration: Part 2
“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed” science fiction author William Gibson famously wrote. This is definitely the case with public transport in the UK. Whilst London’s intermodal fare zones and payment …
Continue readingTemporary cable car replaces destroyed bridge (Seilbahnen)
A temporary cable car has been operating since February 17, 2025, between the villages of Champsec and Sarreyer in Switzerland. It serves as a supplement to the transportation network until the road bridge, destroyed by …
Continue readingSolar energy powers Siemens Mobility’s journey to net zero at Goole Rail Village (RailUK)
Siemens Mobility is leading the way to a greener future for the rail industry with a comprehensive range of low-carbon investments at its Goole Rail Village. The Rail Village now has minimal operational emissions, with …
Continue readingTokyo Subway Construction Costs Deconstructed (PedestrianObservations)
Here is a list of Japanese subways and their construction costs, courtesy of Borners, who has been working on this as well as on a deep dive about London construction costs. I’d been looking for this …
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