China’s demand for electric vehicles charges copper, and Citi expects prices to hit $6,700 a tonne as the metal is core to the next motoring generation. Copper is a very ordinary building material that has …
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Drones for autonomous trains (RailTech)
Thales is developing a concept of special drones for Automatic Train Operation (ATO). The air vehicles will be equipped with advanced optronics, infra-red sensors and other integrating leading technologies. The drones will fly ahead of …
Continue readingQuestionable economics of AV taxis (FTAlphaville)
Alphaville has long held the suspicion that, despite the hype, the economics of a self-driving fleet of taxis, as an alternative to owning a car, simply won’t work. A new paper out Monday, written by …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 6 May 2019
• Re-regulate Manchester buses to improve the air (AirQuality) • Seven new electric ferries for Copenhagen (Cruise&Ferry) • Small town’s UberBus imperfect solution (CityLab) • NYC bus lanes sped up service with minimal driver impact …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 3 May 2019
• Birmingham Moor Street expansion part of One Station strategy (RailEngineer) • More deaths in Leeds from transport-related air pollution than Shanghai (AirQualityNews) • Brussels celebrates its Tramiversary (Indie) • Sweden’s flight shaming movement (PRI) …
Continue readingCrossrail & 4 other late rail projects (SmartRailWorld)
Four months after the original planned opening of Crossrail, reports have been released today that could push the Elizabeth Line’s inaugural journey back to 2021. But it is far from the first infrastructure project that …
Continue readingTuesday Transport Tech Terms – April 2019 (Reconnections)
This is a new feature which aims to explain the latest in transport acronyms, abbreviations and concepts quickly, as well as provide some relevance. In covering industry developments, we at LR Towers come across new …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 29 April 2019
• Building over Moorgate station (Building) • London electric car charge map (MappingLondon) • Tottenham Court Rd cuts both ways again (HydeParkNow) • Musk’s DC-Baltimore car tunnel idea worse than pointless (Jalopnik) • New trains …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 26 April 2019
• It’s the Beadles’ (& Burlington Arcade’s) 200th anniversary (HydeParkNow) • Dublin public transport use up, car use down (IntelligentTransport) • Toronto’s transit de-devolution battle (Spacing) • Railways and literature (NYReviewOfBooks) • Crowdfunding reduces bikelash …
Continue readingWhat are Rail Industry Readiness Levels? (RailEngineer)
Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) were first defined by NASA in 1989 as a method of classifying the maturity of a technology or product during its development and acquisition. Originally seven in number, this was increased …
Continue readingCan solar PV power railways? (RailwayTechnology)
Shining example: will solar PV power the railways of the future? How will our expanding railways be powered in the future? And are electrified networks powered solely by renewable energy the answer? Demand for traction …
Continue readingLA rebooting bus network using cell phone data (Wired)
The Orange Line [BRT] carries more than 20,000 people every weekday. But setting this route aside, bus ridership has gone off a cliff, here and nationwide. Some 2,300 buses run around LA every day — …
Continue readingCapacitors: cheap, ubiquitous & backlogged (Quartz)
The CEO of GoPro, which manufactures small, stout action cameras, literally can’t make enough of them. The culprit, reports Quartz’s Daniel Wolfe, is a worldwide shortage of one of the modern world’s critical cogs: multilayer ceramic capacitors …
Continue readingMonday’s Friday Reads – 22 April 2019
• Tube map of London roads (DiamondGeezer) • Homes England to winch homes onto London rooftops (EnvJ) • Trolley canal boats and canal railways (LowTechMag) • Cycling tunnels under the Tyne dug by hand (Guardian) …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 19 April 2019
• Analog Tube map prototyping (EsriArcGISBlog) • Paris to trial all night Metro & Tram lines (MetroReport) • Uber admits directly competing with transit (Jalopnik) • Story of Toronto streetcars’ bullseyes (SeanMarshall) • Old NYC …
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