West Japan Railway plans to order four 11-car Series 273 electric multiple-units to replace the Series 381 trainsets used on Yakumo Limited Express services on the Hakubi line. This 1 067 mm gauge route runs across the main island …
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Electric bus charging & range simulation tool created (Globe&Mail)
“Our lives need to change,” says Josipa Petrunic, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), a Canadian technology consortium launched in 2015 to design, deploy and advance zero-carbon and smart-enabled transportation …
Continue readingChina studying wings on bullet trains for more speed (ImpactLab)
Bullet trains in China can run as fast as 350 kilometres per hour and Chinese researchers want them to take the top speed of 450km/h. China wants even faster bullet trains, and a team of …
Continue readingRubber could be key to future EV batteries (ElectricHybridVeh)
For electric vehicles to become mainstream, they need cost-effective, safer, longer-lasting batteries that won’t explode during use or harm the environment. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology may have found a promising alternative to …
Continue readingThe surreal Métro of Charleroi
Noted surrealist painter Réné Magritte was Belgian. It is perhaps appropriate that Belgian politics produced a surreal Métro line, that is neither a metro nor operational. But that is about to change, in Charleroi. This …
Continue readingNew tech to battle catenary theft (RailFreight)
Polish rail infrastructure manager PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe has begun testing an anti-theft device for the railway catenary system. The tests in cooperation with Poland’s National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) are expected to …
Continue readingNew system to instantly detect leaves on rails (RailTechnology)
Engineers from Loughborough University and the University of Sheffield have partnered up to develop a new on-board system which allows trains to instantly detect leaves on the line. The new system developed in partnership with …
Continue readingVehicle Battery Report development 2021 (BatteryBrunch)
The Battery Report summarises the most significant developments in the battery industry. This [detailed] report seeks to provide a comprehensive and accessible overview of the latest battery research, policy and business landscape. Continue reading
Continue readingHow degraded EV batteries can be useful (Wired)
ON A BARREN field in Lancaster, California, where the temperature often tops 100 degrees in summer, sit eight white boxes that might be a key to a greener future. Each 10 x 22-foot rectangle holds 20 …
Continue readingUsing ‘Lego wall’ to avoid all-line block (RailTechnology)
The engineers delivering on the Cardiff Area Signalling Renewals Project used an innovative ‘Lego wall’ to provide a solid barrier between open lines and those lines being replaced, avoiding the need for a disruptive all-line …
Continue reading2021 Quiz – Answers
Control tower at RAF Kenley – on wheels!
Continue readingBattery price declines slowing down (BloombergGreen)
BloombergNEF has just published the 2021 battery price survey, one of the most important pieces of research we carry out annually. The key takeaway: On a volume-weighted average basis across the battery industry, prices fell …
Continue readingHow technology can streamline rail procedures (MediaRail)
There is a ‘natural’ tendency to see railway technology as backward, inbred and both resistant and slow to adopt innovations from other industries. In fact, beyond technology, rail however must make a qualitative leap by …
Continue readingSiC semiconductor trial reduces tram noise & energy (Railway-News)
Siemens Mobility and Stadtwerke München have presented the results of a one-year test trialling silicone carbide (SiC) semiconductor technology in an Avenio tram. During the test phase, the vehicle travelled 65,000km. The test, a joint …
Continue readingLA Metro trialing contactless hot gas tunneling (Wired)
IN THE 1970S, US government researchers imagined digging through rock with a nuclear-powered tunneling machine. They thought this machinery could change the world by traveling through the Earth’s upper mantle like a submarine moves through water, …
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