Two tramway extensions in western Graz opened on November 26: a €44·2m extension of Route 4 by 1·8 km from Alte Poststraße to Reininghaus, and a €28·3m extension of Route 6 by 1·3 km from Asperngasse to Smart City. Owing to the coronavirus lockdown, the extensions opened without ceremony.
Dr Jacob Kam has been re-appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong’s MTR Corp for a second three-year term running from April 1 2022.
A 1 km extension of Magdeburg’s tram network north from Ebendorfer Chaussee to Kannenstieg opened on November 29, adding four stops. There have also been some service changes in the city centre, with routes 9 and 10 swapping.
A consortium of Hindustan Construction Co and KEC International has been awarded a Rs13bn contract to build 11·6 km of viaduct for Corridor 5 of Phase II of the Chennai metro, including 112 elevated stations.
A $158·1m federal Capital Investment Grant for the $401·3m Phoenix light rail Northwest Extension Phase II project was signed on November 19. The 2·6 km extension will start at 19th Avenue in Glendale and run west along Dunlap Avenue, turning north on 25th Avenue and crossing I-17 on Mountain View Road to terminate near Metrocenter Mall.
Vancouver’s TransLink, Interac Corp and Cubic Transportation Systems are working together to integrate Interac Debit contactless payment onto more than 5 000 Compass fare gate and bus ticket readers by the end of 2022. Passengers will be able to pay using Interac Debit in addition to the already available options including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay Wallet.
On November 24 Singapore’s Land Transport Authority and the Ministry of Transport of Malaysia finalised the grantor agreement setting out their respective responsibilities relating to the concession agreement for the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System Link cross-border metro scheme.