A 13·7 km eastern extension of the Yidong suburban railway line in Jinhua opened on April 7, linking Sports Centre with the Ming & Qing Dynasty Palaces. Construction began in April 2021.
Chennai Metro Rail Ltd has awarded Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric a Rs1bn contract to supply platform screen doors for stations on Phase 2 Corridor 4. This includes full-height doors for nine underground stations from Light House to Kodambakkam, and half-height doors for 18 elevated stations from Kodambakkam to Poonamalle. The contract is being financed by New Development Bank.
Bashir Ahmad bin Abdul Majid became Chairman of Malaysian’s Mass Rapid Transit Corp on April 3. He began his career at Malaysia Airlines, and has held roles in the aviation regulation and airport management sectors. CEO Mohd Zarif Hashim said his ‘vast experience in responding to changing business models, economic regulatory affairs, and service delivery would come very handy to MRT Corp in supporting our mission to catalyse sustainability of cities and mobility of people.’
Philadelphia transport agency SEPTA has awarded Jacobs Engineering Group a $5·8m contract to provide architectural, design and construction-related services for accessibility improvements at Lombard-South and Ellsworth-Federal on the Broad Street Line and Chinatown on the Broad-Ridge Spur. The stops pre-date the Americans with Disabilities Act, and are currently only accessible via stairs.
The government of Russia is to provide 86·5bn roubles for urban electric transport projects in 10 regions in 2023-25. This will include modernisation of 620 km of tramway, the purchase of 646 trams and 284 electric buses and the construction of 124 charging stations in Volgograd, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Kursk, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Rostov, Saratov and Yaroslavl.
The Shewrapara and Uttara South intermediate stations on Dhaka Line 6 opened on March 31, taking the total number of stations on the 11·7 km elevated line to nine.
The first Ivolga 3.0 trainset manufactured by Transmashholding entered service on Moskva’s regional express line MCD-2 on April 6. The trainsets were ordered for MCD-3 and MCD-4, and will transfer to the new lines when they open. ‘We expect that this year the Moscow transport hub will receive more than 600 commuter train cars, so the share of modern trains in the region will reach 71%’ said Deputy Mayor for Transport Maksim Liksutov.
Chicago Transit Authority has begun the all-day operation of short workings on the busiest section of the Blue Line O’Hare branch between O’Hare and UIC-Halsted. This is intended to accommodate increasing demand as people return to the office, and while the Illinois Department of Transportation reconstructs the Kennedy Expressway.
Transdev has appointed Gilles Elmoznino as Director of Media & External Relations from April 12. He joins from Valeo Group where he was Director of Media Relations.