List view / Grid view

Articles

Alicante tram expansion

24 June 2005 | By Marisa Gracia Gimenez, Managing Director, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana (FGV)

Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana (FGV) at present has a 93km line in the province of Alicante, between Alicante and Denia, on which there are 44 stations and 18 units running. The Autonomous Community Authority’s Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports’ development of the Alicante Metropolitan tram project is enabling the…

Cities today – defined by their metro systems

24 June 2005 | By Olof Persson, President, Mainline & Metros, Bombardier Transportation

Today, cities are growing and expanding, populations are increasing, and the need for improved, safer and modern mass transit is an absolute must. As populations extend to suburban areas to live and continue commuting to inner downtown areas to work, this need for efficient transportation has become the top priority…

SUPERNOVA – the evaluation tool

24 June 2005 | By Thomas Posch, Project Manager, OBB Passenger Transportation Department

In late 2002, the OBB Austrian Federal Railways Passenger Transportation Department decided to develop a planning and evaluation tool based on a countrywide traffic-demand-model. The main aim was to evaluate the impact of new public transport services on passenger demand, hence SUPERNOVA: Simulationmodel on Use of Public Transport Systems for…

Third tramway for Grenoble

24 June 2005 | By Claude Bertrand, President, SMTC

The public transport network in the Grenoble metropolitan area is one of the most dynamic in Europe, with more than 68 million users per year. This network is taken care of by the SMTC, the public institution in charge of public transport in the agglomeration and operated by the SEMITAG.…

Authorities upgrade passenger information

24 June 2005 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor

Public transport services can be confusing in busy cities. This is especially the case for occasional users who are unfamiliar with the system. These are the people that city authorities are seeking to draw out of their cars. An unhappy time using public transport – getting on the wrong bus,…

Improving security on urban transport systems

24 June 2005 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor

Video cameras, platform access gates, plastic film on glass to prevent etching – these are just some of the ideas being used by public transport authorities to frustrate criminals and vandals. Security is a big issue for public transport authorities. Not only are they concerned about keeping their own property…

Improving travel in cities

1 April 2005 | By Jack Short, Secretary General, European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT)

Policy-makers around the world more or less agree now that the best way to achieve sustainable urban travel is via a package of complementary measures that draw from regulatory, pricing and technological tools. And while recent experience from ECMT and OECD countries shows that while many countries and cities are…

Public transport in Rome at a turning point

1 April 2005 | By Roberto Cavalieri, Chairman, European Committee, UITP, former General Manager, ATAC SpA, Managing Director, Met.Ro. SpA

Hosting the 56th UITP Congress and Exhibition this year is a clear sign of the major development the public transport sector has made in Rome. It is therefore both a point of arrival and a new start. In recent years, Rome has managed to reform the municipal public transport system…

Providing complete mobility for Dresden

1 April 2005 | By Frank Müller-Eberstein Chief Executive Officer, Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG

Dresden is the capital of the German State of Saxony and has a population of about half a million people. It is located about halfway between Berlin and Prague in what was formerly East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic. The Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG (DVB) is the mobility service provider…

Heat extraction in underground railway tunnels

1 April 2005 | By Alain Le Clech Head of Installation and Safety Committee, Metropolitan Railways Division, UITP

The Electrical Installations and Safety Systems Subcommittee of the UITP Metropolitan Railways Division has launched a study concerning ventilation and smoke extraction based on observations made regarding the production of heat in metro tunnels. It soon became apparent that it was possible to recover some of the heat dissipated in…

Smartcards and interoperability: one year on

1 April 2005 | By Peter Stoddart Head of Marketing, ITSO and Independent Consultant

In the very first issue of Intelligent Transport, I suggested that I come back after five years and review the beliefs that I postulated on smartcards and the need for interoperability. To be asked to do it after just 12 months posed an interesting question – was there anything to…

Smartcards storm the world’s cities

1 April 2005 | By James Abbott Technical Editor

More and more cities are ditching paper-based ticketing systems and adopting smartcards instead. Smartcards are becoming more popular as mass production brings the price down and the advantages of ‘going smart’ become more apparent. Embedding a chip in a ticket is more expensive than holding data on a magnetic stripe…

Munich’s ridership count system

1 April 2005 | By Karin Schweiger Project Leader, Ridership Count Management Systems, Stadtwerke Munchen GmbH/MVG

The Munich subway, tram and bus network is operated by the Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH (MVG) and has, in all, 86km of subway, 71km of tram, and 432km of bus routes for eight subway, 10 tram and 61 bus lines. Line routes and timetables in this network are not static, but…

Taking disability on board

1 April 2005 | By Nora Bednarski, Policy Officer, European Disability Forum

Transport and mobility are essential to disabled people’s full participation in society. Accessible transport is a must. As our population ages rapidly and with an increased consciousness in society of the essential nature of accessible transport in the lives of disabled people, we see a distinct trend towards the development…

Accessible public transport in Europe’s cities

1 April 2005 | By Andrew Braddock, A B O U T

Within the European Union there are more than 55 million disabled people – the equivalent of the population of one of the larger Member States – plus still larger numbers of older people and those who are encumbered by small children (in or out of pushchairs), or by heavy baggage…