New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and MTA Chair & CEO Janno Lieber joined celebrations on February 26 marking the full launch of enhanced Long Island Rail Road services to exploit the completion of the East Side Access programme to open a deep-level terminus at Grand Central Madison, as well as 37 route-km of double- and triple-tracking on Long Island. LIRR’s enhanced timetable from February 27 added 271 more trains per day across the network, including the introduction of ‘reverse peak’ services on the Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma branches. ‘Grand Central Madison is a public transportation feat that will shorten commutes, giving commuters time back in their busy lives to spend with their families, friends and communities’, Hochul said.
On March 2 Mayor Memduh Büyükkılıç opened light rail line T3 of Kayseri, which shares tracks with T1 from İldem 5 in the east to Anafartalar on the north, from where it runs 6·7 km on its own alignment northeast to Kumsmall AVM. The mayor said the Turkish city is ‘continuing our work in order to increase the quality of transport’ for residents.
The Junta de Andalucía has called tenders for a 36-month contract valued at €57m for the construction of cut and cover tunnels for a 1·8 km underground extension of Metro de Málaga Line 2 from Guadalmedina to a new hospital complex in Bailén-Miraflores. Separate contracts will cover the stations at Hilera, La Trinidad and Hospital Civil, plus signalling, train control and electrification.
Seattle’s Sound Transit is undertaking public engagement for alignment and stop options for the Tacoma Dome Link Extension. Work so far has identified the need to consider more station options because of the presence of floodplains and an additional route option in the South Federal Way/Milton area to avoid potential effects to known cultural resources and ‘constructability challenges’ along the I-5 corridor. Services are projected to begin in 2035.
ADIF has selected Coalvi and Construcciones Instalaciones & Tracción for a €21·8 m contract to prepare 10 km of existing alignment between Colmenar and Soto del Real north of Madrid for the extension of Cercanías commuter services on Line C-4B beyond Colmenar Viejo. This will involve widening the trackbed from between 9·5 m and 12·5 m to 13 m to enable the laying of a second track if demand increases sufficiently, along with track replacement, electrification and modification of civil engineering structures and earthworks, including widening a viaduct.
Moskva Metro has launched a pilot B2B 5G network operated by MTS at five stations of on the Big Circle Line 11 which opened on March 1. The telecoms network will provide a data transfer speed of up to 1·5 Gbit/sec with minimal latency. ‘These technologies can be used to launch unmanned trains, diagnose infrastructure or rolling stock, and train personnel on the basis of virtual and augmented reality’, said Maksim Liksutov, Deputy Mayor for Transport.
Phoenix Rising FC supporters can now use their match tickets to travel on Valley Metro light rail services to the 38th St/Washington stop near the stadium up to 4 h before a game, returning by the end of service. The partnership includes several branding initiatives, including dedicated signage at the stop.