List view / Grid view
6 October 2007 | By Dr Fathi Tarada, Director of Fire Safety Engineering, Halcrow Group Ltd
Tunnels are no more dangerous than the rest of the road network; in fact, they are generally safer. However, in case of an incident in a tunnel, the possible consequences in terms of life safety, damage to infrastructure assets and disruption to traffic flow are significantly magnified. A recent example…
6 October 2007 | By Steinar Furan, Quality Manager, Q-Free ASA
Technological developments have unleashed a multitude of tools for the owners of road user charging and congestion charging systems. It could be thought that this vast selection of tools would make system design and operation very easy, and that assumption is correct if the focus remains on the system, rather…
6 October 2007 | By Brendan O’Brien, Head of Technical Services (Traffic), Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council is a major user of CCTV systems. It is primarily used for traffic monitoring and management within the city area, along regional and motorway links, dedicated public transport links, and the approaches to the Dublin Port Tunnel. The City Council monitors over 160 CCTV cameras from a…
6 October 2007 | By Beatrix Lourens, Head of Security at RET, and Krishna Baboelal, Area Manager
The RET never intended to play a role in the war on terrorism, but it did want to take preventive measures to ensure an adequate response in the event of a possible terrorist attack. In addition to its sound social safety policy, the RET also has an efficient organisation to…
6 October 2007 | By Francisco Javier Vizcaíno, Managing Director, Tramvia Metropolità, SA
Barcelona had a tramway system for almost a century; from 1872 until 1971. The first tramway line connected the city with the municipality of Gràcia, and was pulled by horses. Fifty years later, using electricity, Barcelona’s tramway system had one of the biggest networks in Europe. However, this method of…
6 October 2007 | By Anders Kåbjörn, InformNorden Secretary General
The breakthrough of the Internet and the mobile phone in the middle of the 90s made it possible to develop different advanced information services in public transportation...
6 October 2007 | By Paul Wolfe, Commissioning Editor
Ten years after the Mercedes-Benz Citaro urban regular service bus was unveiled at the UITP Congress 1997 in Stuttgart, Citaro number 17,500 was recently presented at the UITP Congress 2007 in Helsinki. The Citaro has been frequently updated over the previous years and the ultra-modern Citaro of today continues to…
6 October 2007 | By Alain Cherbuis, Marketing Executive, SMTD
Phileas is a new concept for comfortable, high frequent passenger transport. Run on a dedicated bus lane, the Phileas combines the advantages of rail transport with the low costs and flexibility of a bus system. With precision docking along a raised platform, fast passenger entry and exit will reduce the…
9 August 2007 | By Peter Fry, Head of CCTV Users Group
It is only weeks since the attempted bombings in London and Glasgow, and I cannot forget my group’s frantic activity as they were involved in supplying CCTV footage. Images of the events following the attacks in July 2005 – and being able to track and identify the suicide bombers –…
9 August 2007 | By Dr. Manfred Ritschel, Chairman, Kontiki Group
The Kontiki Working Group is a product and system independent platform comprising of 76 members from public transport associations, transportation companies, and industry, banking and credit services. As well as these, there are also consulting companies for the implementation of contact-less smart card systems for electronic ticketing in public transport…
9 August 2007 | By Laurent Dauby, Senior Manager, UITP
With hectometric transport, automated people movers (APM), driverless metro and automated guide-way transit (AGT), there seems to be no limit to the creation of words and acronyms. As a consequence, there is a lot of confusion about rail systems featuring some level of automation. However, in recent years, there have…
9 August 2007 | By Sandro Francesconi, Seconded National Expert, European Commission, Road Safety Unit.
Transport plays a crucial role in supporting European integration and ensuring a high level of wellbeing amongst Europe’s citizens. Efficient infrastructure for transport is vital for EU competitiveness for reducing costs and providing a good service. Moreover, European integration requires sufficient access to EU transport networks for all regions. Therefore,…
9 August 2007 | By Bernhard Kohl MSc, Head of ILF branch office, ILF Consulting Engineers
Since 1999, road tunnel safety has become a subject of growing interest in the public as well as among tunnel specialists. This is largely because of different incidents that have led to an increased risk awareness. The recent catastrophes in the Mont Blanc tunnel, the Tauern tunnel, and Gotthard tunnel…
9 August 2007 | By David George, Fastrack Project Manager, Kent Thameside Delivery Board
The first stage of the Fastrack new bus rapid transit system, launched in March 2006, has already had a huge impact on the travel patterns of local residents already living in north Kent. Now a new route has been launched, this time with the focus on influencing the travel behaviour…
9 August 2007 | By Dimosthenis Giannisopoulos, Chief Security Officer, Athens Metro
Preparing the Athens Metro for the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens was a multi-faceted project. As the Chief Security Officer, I was called upon to not only produce a security plan, but also to evaluate the situation in regards to what was necessary in terms of training and equipment required.…
