Knorr-Bremse subsidiary Merak is upgrading the air-conditioning on 585 Barcelona metro Series 5000, 6000 and 9000 cars, fitting long life filters. It will also test the use of electrostatic active filters to tackle aerosol-bound pathogens, and test prototypes of a digital automatic air quality detection system which will make it possible to monitor the real-time behaviour of the climate control systems and react to specific situations, for example by regulating the supply of fresh air to individual vehicles.
Bechtel has been selected as delivery partner for Toronto’s 15·6 km Ontario Line metro project, working with Bantrel and Comtech Group to provide resources, experience and knowledge ahead of construction. ‘Our team will bring considerable experience and lessons learned from similar recent roles around the world to help establish a collaborative integrated project team with the client and its other consultants and contractors’, said Kelvin Sims, General Manager, Infrastructure Americas.
The UK government has extended Transport for London’s coronavirus emergency funding deal by a week from December 11 to 17. On December 10 TfL said discussions with the Department for Transport in relation to future funding requirements were ongoing, and TfL was in a position to meet its operational and contractual obligations in the near term.
The European Investment Bank has signed a €100m loan agreement to support renewal of the Kyiv metro and trolleybus fleet. ‘Kyiv is the first municipality in Ukraine to receive sub-sovereign financing, and that means a lot to us‘, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko. ‘The new electric vehicles will bring many benefits for the inhabitants and guests of the capital and will also facilitate transition to becoming a more sustainable and eco-friendly city. Last but not least, the new vehicles will reduce operating costs for the city.‘
On December 11 Brussels tram Route 9 was extended by 1·6 km and four stops from Arbre Ballon to Roi Baudouin in the northwestern Heysel district, providing interchange with metro Line 6 and tram routes 51 and 93.
Dhaka Mass Transit Co has announced that the Bangladesh capital’s first metro line will open for revenue service on December 16. The northern half of Line 6 runs from the depot at Uttara to Agargaon.
A 3·2 km extension of Stuttgart Stadtbahn Line U6 from Fasanenhof Schelmenwasen to Flughafen/Messe opened on December 12. Construction began in October 2017 and has cost €101m. The journey from central Stuttgart takes around 30 min, with services operating every 10 min in the peaks and every 15 min off-peak.
A single station partly-underground extension of Tianjin metro Line 5 from Zhongyiyifuyuan to Liqizhuangnan opened on December 7.
Augsburg tram Route 3 was extended 4·6 km from Haunstetten West to Königsbrunn Zentrum on December 12. The total project cost was €52m.
Alstom has deployed the CylusOne rail-specific cybersecurity platform from local company Cylus to protect the Urbalis 400 CBTC on Tel Aviv’s Red Line. CylusOne monitors data within the signalling, control and communications networks to detect abnormalities or attack patterns. ‘We now provide our clients solutions to problems that did not even exist when the Red Line was planned and approved’, said Eran Cohen, Managing Director of Alstom Israel.