Britain’s commercial backbone railway is carrying everything vital to the continued economic activity of the UK. That includes the Royal Mail. With greatly reduced passenger services now running, freight has become far more visible on …
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BART shifts to station work during slowdown (ProgRailroading)
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) crews are taking advantage of a 90 percent drop in ridership and early station closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic to work on capital improvement projects. BART moved 200 maintenance and engineering …
Continue readingNR hunts for new tunnelling methods (NewCivilEng)
Network Rail Infrastructure is asking the industry to come up with alternative tunnelling techniques that could reduce disruption to the railways. In the request for information (RFI) notice on the Official Journal of European Union, it is …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 6 April 2020
• London Review of Books reviews Tube escalators (LRB) • A lot going wrong on Ottawa’s new LRT (OttawaCitizen) • Why the US sucks at building public transit (Vice) • Map of SFO BART – …
Continue readingCOVID-19 prompts more robot usage (RobotReport)
The novel coronavirus has increased interest in robots, drones, and artificial intelligence, even as some testing of autonomous vehicles pauses on public roads. These technologies can help deal with massive staffing shortages in healthcare, manufacturing, and …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 3 April 2020
• Victoria Embankment and cholera – urban form & disease (Guardian) • The fashionable history of social distancing (TheConversation) • Dirty air, tailpipes & COVID-19 (TransportWeekly) • The Congestion Con: more lanes means more traffic …
Continue readingTitanium dioxide proven for disinfecting trains (RailTech)
Titanium dioxide has proved its efficiency for cleaning and disinfecting trains. It reduces the number of bacteria inside the carriages up to 99 per cent. The tests have been carried out by the Polish regional …
Continue readingFree EBike loan for London health workers (TheVerge)
Key National Health Service (NHS) workers in London are being offered a three-month e-bike loan to help them commute to work while social distancing. There are currently 20 Gocycle GS loaner e-bikes available, with more …
Continue readingSNCF deploys hospital TGV for COVID (RailwayGazette)
SNCF has started transporting Covid-19 patients using a TGV Duplex trainset that has been has adapted as a mobile hospital unit. It is being used to evacuate recuperating patients from hot spot areas where the …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 30 March 2020
• Manchester Metrolink opens Trafford Park line (MetroReport) • The longest ever individual load on rails (RogerFarnworth) • Budapest’s busy tram network (TheUrbanist) • Toronto & Vancouver look into closing roads for social distancing (Globe&Mail) …
Continue readingMore robots assisting railways (RailTech)
The spread of coronavirus around the world and particularly in Europe has made the use of unmanned technologies more vital. In this regard, robots could be a solution for cleaning and disinfecting trains or stations. Where …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 27 March 2020
• Secret passageway discovered in UK House of Commons (NPR) • Grimshaw’s story of designing Waterloo International Terminal (Dezeen) • East Midlands stations win £161m to improve neighbourhoods (BusinessDesk) • Transport & urban form determine …
Continue readingAir pollution & spread of COVID-19 infection (SIMA)
To date, several scientific studies focused on viruses diffusion among humans demonstrated that increased incidence of infection is related to airborne particulate matter (PM) concentration levels [1,2]. It is known that PM fractions (e.g., PM2.5 …
Continue readingCOVID-19 highlights need for freight analytics (GreenBiz)
COVID-19 shines a spotlight on flexible, digital freight – not enough masks and ventilators in one COVID-19 country hotspot. A lack of testing kits in another. Toilet paper, baby wipes, milk and eggs emptied off …
Continue readingGermFalcon Airliner UV sterilizer (IEEESpectrum)
Flight of the GermFalcon: how a potential Coronavirus-killing airplane sterilizer was born. Dimer UVC’s ultraviolet germ zapper took some very hands-on design work. Dr. Arthur Kreitenberg and his son Elliot got some strange looks when …
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