• Sound Transit launches Bellevue-Redmond Line 2 light rail service (Trains) • Why Norway is rethinking its reliance on electric cars (Vox) • Can car-loving LA sell riders a future on rails? (Bloomberg) • “Hell …
Continue readingCategory: Trams/Streetcars/LRT
Order in Very Light Rail – VLR – development (UKTram)
A recent deal that will lead to trials of new lightweight passenger trains has been welcomed by a recently established very light rail (VLR) working party. Late last year, one of the country’s leading rolling …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 26 February 2024
• UK Rail passenger numbers could almost double by 2050 (Infrastructure Intel) • Profits of UK’s private train-leasing firms treble in a year (Guardian) • New £2bn Edinburgh tram line to be put to public …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 9 February 2024
• Battery traction trial ahead as TransPennine Express fortunes improve (Railway Gazette) • New £2bn Edinburgh tramline to be put to public consultation (New Civil Engineer) • History of psychological tricks TfL trialed to make …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 26 January 2024
• German union calls longest train strike in Deutsche Bahn’s history (Reuters) • Zurich 2040 plan approved to expand public transport network significantly (Urban Transport) • The Southern Heights Light Railway: Video (Jago Hazzard) • …
Continue readingNew T12 Tram-Train begins service outside of Paris (UrbanTransport)
The newest – and for the time being last – TramTrain line in Greater Paris, the T12 from Massy to Évry-Courcouronnes, has been been officially inaugurated today – 9 December 2023, scheduled revenue service starts …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 20 November 2023
• Birmingham Eastside Metro Extension Plans Brought Forward (Railway News) • Baltimore’s Red Line Should Be a Stadtbahn (Martha Lauren) • To Fight Fare Evasion, PATH Turnstiles ‘Speak Up’ (Railway Age) • Stockholm Plans to …
Continue readingCoventry Very Light Rail vehicle successfully tested on innovative track system (NewCivilEng)
Plans to build the first Very Light Rail system in the UK has reached a major milestone as the vehicle has been successfully tested on innovative track that was laid in weeks. The Coventry Very …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 27 October 2023
• New video shows the nearly finished Brent Cross West station (IanVisits) • Reflective pavements tackle urban heat but sometimes make feel pedestrians hotter (CityLab) • Kyiv Metro vs the World: How Kyiv Metro runs …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 23 October 2023
• TfL & Google Maps collaborate to make cycling better for Londoners & world (TfL) • Glasgow Subway services could soon run later (Glasgow Live) • ULEZ already raising air quality at 144 more London schools (OnLondon) …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 16 October 2023
• ‘Managed decline’: the uncertain future for British rail after cuts to HS2 (Financial Times – £) • TfL ‘no longer able to commit the funding’ to long-promised extension of tram to Sutton (New Civil …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 9 October 2023
• The Assassination of HS2 by the Coward Rishi Sunak (S.Y. LEE) • Sunak’s ‘scorched earth’ slashing of HS2 means further legs will never be built (NewCivilEng) • France to launch German-style cut-price monthly rail …
Continue readingBreakthrough in tram driver fatigue detection (UKTram)
A wearable device that’s been designed to detect the onset of fatigue in tram drivers has delivered remarkable results in independent testing commissioned by UKTram. The organisation representing the light rail sector reports that the …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 25 September 2023
• End ‘spiral of decline’ of bus services by handing control to councils (LocalGovt) • Nottingham’s multi-pronged approach to effective public transport (MobilityMatters) • Prague’s new minimalist pedestrian bridge (Domus) • How the US created …
Continue readingDithering & long processes make the UK’s infrastructure too expensive (SamDumitriu)
“Unachievable.” The Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s assessment of High Speed 2 (HS2) does not pull its punches. Back in 2013, the high-speed line to connect London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds was estimated to cost about £56.7bn …
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